ANALYTICAL APPROXIMATION FOR NONLINEAR ADSORBING SOLUTE TRANSPORT AND1ST-ORDER DEGRADATION

Under some constraints, solutes undergoing nonlinear adsorption migrat e according to a traveling wave. Analytical traveling wave solutions w ere used to obtain an approximation for the solute front shape, c(z, t ), for the situation of equilibrium nonlinear adsorption and first-ord er degradation. This approximation describes numerically obtained fron ts and breakthrough curves well. It is shown to describe fronts more a ccurately than a solution based on linearized adsorption. The latter s olution accounts neither for the relatively steep downstream solute fr ont nor for the deceleration in time of the nonlinear front.