Physical Hydrogeology

Earth 458

Lecture 10-2: Contaminant hydrogeology:

Diffusion, mechanical dispersion and
hydrodynamic dispersion

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 Molecular Diffusion
• Solutes can move through a stationary fluid due to
random “Brownian” motion
• This molecular motion, referred to as diffusion, causes
solutes to move from areas of high concentration to areas
of low concentration
• The diffusive mass flux is given by Fick’s first law:

Diffusive Mass Flux: Free

Water
where: JD = diffusive mass flux (units?)
Dd = diffusion coefficient in free water (L2/T)
dC/dx = concentration gradient (M/L3/L)
Note: that diffusion effectively spreads solutes in all directions, but
there is no groundwater movement – diffusive flux has dimensions
of [M/L2/T]
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 Duck Diffusion
• In a lake with no flow

Duck Lake

t=0
t = t1

• Diffusion effectively spreads solutes in all directions

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 Molecular Diffusion
• Gas movement driven by a concentration gradient

• Classic diffusion model

o volume filled with air – purple and green atoms separated by a barrier
o remove the barrier and molecules diffuse to regions of lower
concentration

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Note that Dd is closely related to the random motion of
molecules, thus is dependent on temperature and
molecule size.

(Fetter, 1991)
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 Diffusion in Porous Media
• Diffusion conditions in porous media differ from those in free
water;
• The value of the diffusion coefficient is usually smaller than
Dd because of the tortuous flow paths that molecules have
to travel.

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 Diffusion in Porous Media
• We will apply an effective diffusion coefficient for
porous media and denote it by D*:
D* = Dd ω
o where: ω (always < 1) is an empirical coefficient that accounts for
tortuosity – ω is determined experimentally and generally
ranges from 0.01 to 0.8 (average 0.6 - 0.7)
• We again consider the reduction in diffusion area due to
the solid grains by introducing effective porosity, ne, into
the diffusive flux equation for porous media.

Diffusive Mass Flux:

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 Mechanical Dispersion
• It has long been known that solutes in groundwater will
spread out further than diffusion can account for.
• This spreading is termed mechanical dispersion and is
the result of our “incomplete” understanding of the flow
system.
• We have viewed groundwater flow using the REV concept
where groundwater can be described with an average
linear velocity, v .
• In reality, the velocity of each particle or packet of
groundwater (and solute it carries) in the subsurface is
different.
• These velocity variations about the mean velocity cause
an apparent spreading or dispersing of the solute mass.

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 Duck Dispersion
• In the duck analogy, the ducks disperse due to variations
in stream velocity (eddies, boulders, drag along banks,
etc.).

v1

v2
Avg. vel, v
v3
v4
v5
t=0 t1 t2

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 Mechanical Dispersion
• Mechanical dispersion is really an advective process that
results from velocity variations we cannot account for.
• Note that some velocities (v2 and v3) in the stream were
greater than v and some velocities (v1, v4, and v5) were less
than v.
• The end result is that part of the solute mass moves farther
than the predicted center of mass and part of it does not
move as far.
• The center of solute mass moves a distance d = (v×t) under
the influence of average linear velocity.

d v

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 Mechanical Dispersion
• The variability in flow velocity occurs at a variety of scales.

Pore-scale velocity variations

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 Mechanical Dispersion
• Field-scale velocity variation – caused by heterogeneity.

5m
• Are the grey layers high K or low K?

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 Mechanical Dispersion Flux
• Experiments show that the mechanical dispersion flux can be
expressed in much the same way as Fickian diffusion.

o where: JM is the dispersive flux in the direction of groundwater flow

DM is the mechanical dispersion coefficient
• Again, we employ the effective porosity to account for flow
only in the pore spaces.
• Hereafter, we will revert to using n instead of ne
• It is assumed that we are referring to effective porosity when
evaluating transport equations.

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 Mechanical Dispersion Mass Flux
• The mechanical dispersion coefficient has been
evaluated experimentally and is proportional to the
average groundwater velocity.
• The equation is given by:

o where: α is referred to as the dispersivity

• Some researchers have suggested that DM is not linearly
proportional to v, but the relation seems to hold well for
many granular porous media.
• The mechanical dispersion flux becomes:

Mechanical Dispersion
Mass Flux:

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 Mechanical Dispersion
• Mechanical dispersion is a hydraulic mixing
process that causes solute spreading in three
dimensions.
• If we align our coordinate system with the
direction of groundwater flow, we can define:

• Longitudinal dispersion
o spreading parallel to the direction of groundwater flow

• Transverse dispersion
o spreading in the direction normal to groundwater flow
o much smaller than longitudinal dispersion
o can be different horizontally than vertically
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 Solute Mass Spreading
• Plan view of solute mass spreading by advection and
dispersion.

αT

αL

(Domenico and Schwartz, 1990)

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 Dispersivity
• Since mechanical dispersion is directional, so is
dispersivity:
o longitudinal dispersivity – αL
o horizontal transverse dispersivity – αTH
o vertical transverse dispersivity – αTV
• As a rule of thumb, transverse dispersivity is
much smaller than longitudinal, typically by a
factor of 10.
• However, few accurate studies of transverse
dispersivity have been conducted and it is still not
well understood.

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 Transverse Dispersion
• Here is a classic representation of transverse dispersion.
• Does this make sense based on what we know about
groundwater flow?

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 Scale Effect in Dispersion
• Studies have shown
that dispersivity is
scale dependent.
• The diagram shows αL,
but αT is also scale
dependent.
• Xu and Eckstein
(1995) fitted this data
to an empirical
equation:
αL = 0.83∙(log L)2.414

(Xu and Eckstein, 1995) 537

 Scale Effects of Dispersion
• This scale dependence is not surprising given the
underlying mechanisms that cause dispersion.
• Again, what is the main physical cause of
dispersion?
• The key implication is that geologic heterogeneity
has a major influence on solute dispersion.
• As the size of the flow system under investigation
increases, more and more geologic heterogeneity
(i.e., velocity variations) are encountered, resulting
in an apparent increase in dispersion.
• This is termed macrodispersion.

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 Hydrodynamic Dispersion
• In practical situations, it is nearly impossible to distinguish
molecular diffusion from mechanical dispersion.
• Both are expressed as gradient laws and are generally
combined together and referred to as hydrodynamic
dispersion.
• The equations for the longitudinal and transverse
hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient are:

Longitudinal

Transverse

Hydrodynamic = Mechanical + Diffusion

Dispersion Dispersion

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Hydrodynamic Dispersion Mass Flux
• The resulting hydrodynamic dispersive mass flux (or
just dispersive mass flux), JH, can be written:

• where subscript ‘i’ refers to the direction in which the mass

flux is being calculated (i.e., longitudinal or transverse).
• Equations presented later drops the subscript on n for
simplicity (i.e., ne is understood to be n).

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 Diffusion vs. Mechanical Dispersion
• When would you expect mechanical dispersion or diffusion
to dominate the dispersive flux?
• Under low flow velocities:

diffusion dominates

• Under high flow velocities:

mech. dispersion dominates

• Larger DH results in more mixing.

• In what situations would you expect to see more dispersion?
less dispersion?

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