P. Jussel et al., TRANSPORT MODELING IN HETEROGENEOUS AQUIFERS .1. STATISTICAL DESCRIPTION AND NUMERICAL GENERATION OF GRAVEL DEPOSITS, Water resources research, 30(6), 1994, pp. 1803-1817
Transport of solutes in groundwater is decisively influenced by the he
terogeneity of the aquifer. The goal of the present work is the numeri
cal generation of synthetic heterogeneous aquifer models based on a st
atistical description of heterogeneities in gravel aquifers. Large unw
eathered outcrops in several gravel pits in northeastern Switzerland w
ere investigated in this context. On the basis of sedimentological obs
ervations it was possible to specify distinct sedimentary structures a
ppearing as lenses or layers. All structures have been identified in e
ach of the investigated outcrops. By inspecting and analyzing photogra
phs of the outcrops, it was possible to estimate the probability densi
ty functions (pdf) of the geometrical attributes of the sedimentary st
ructures. Disturbed and undisturbed samples were taken from these stru
ctures to estimate the pdf of their hydraulic properties, that is, the
hydraulic conductivity and the porosity. The information obtained is
used to generate distinct numerical realizations by unconditional stoc
hastic simulation of synthetic aquifers having the same statistical pr
operties with respect to hydraulic conductivity and porosity as the in
vestigated deposits.