Time domain random walks for hydrodynamic transport in heterogeneous media

We derive a general formulation of the time domain random walk (TDRW) approach to model the hydrodynamic transport of inert solutes in complex geometries and heterogeneous media. We demonstrate its formal equivalence with the discretized advection-dispersion equation and show that the TDRW is equiva...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Russian, Anna, Dentz, Marco, Gouze, Philippe
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2016
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/140711
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/140711
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Continuous time random walks
Multirate mass transfer
Time domain random walk
Transport
Description
Summary:We derive a general formulation of the time domain random walk (TDRW) approach to model the hydrodynamic transport of inert solutes in complex geometries and heterogeneous media. We demonstrate its formal equivalence with the discretized advection-dispersion equation and show that the TDRW is equivalent to a continuous time random walk (CTRW) characterized by space-dependent transition times and transition probabilities. The transition times are exponentially distributed. We discuss the implementation of different concentration boundary conditions and initial conditions as well as the occurrence of numerical dispersion. Furthermore, we propose an extension of the TDRW scheme to account for mobile-immobile multirate mass transfer. Finally, the proposed TDRW scheme is validated by comparison to analytical solutions for spatially homogeneous and heterogeneous transport scenarios. © 2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.