Environmental Mass Transfer
within A Simple Domain
Below
are several examples of mass transfer (diffusion + dispersion + advection) in
the environment, specifically groundwater. This first example shows constant
diffusion in both X and Y directions:
If
the diffusion coefficients are doubled, the result is:
If
the diffusion coefficients vary spatially, the pattern changes, as shown in
this next animation:
If
we double the spatially-varying diffusion coefficient in the X direction only,
the result is:
Dispersion
is similar to diffusion, only it is tied to velocity (net movement of the
groundwater). If we add dispersion to this process, we see:
Adding
advection (movement of the contaminant with the groundwater), we see yet
another pattern emerge:
These
and other examples are covered in this text Remediation