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Abstract
Solute transport is concerned with irrigation and soil salinization, fertilization and pollution.
A locally manufactured fraction-collector was used for BTC runs on three disturbed sediments from
Egypt to get transient chloride-transport parameters under steady-state saturated flow. 30-cm long
columns were packed with dune Sands, Nile-bank sediments, and clayey Calcareous-aggregates.
Experimental BTC data were fitted to two analytical solutions in CfitM code that solves the
CDE equation corresponding to boundary conditions. The parameters included the retardation
factor, Peclet number, longitudinal dispersivity, hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient and tortuosity.
RETC was used to get the hydraulic parameters by fitting the samples’ pF data.
Sands showed retardation factor of about unity (no reaction), intermediate values for both
Peclet number (49-61) and dispersivity (0.49-0.62cm) (moderate leaching-efficiency). Smaller
dispersivity (better leaching) would be expected if saturation was realized. Nile-bank sediments
monitored high Peclet number (117-180), small dispersivity (0.17-0.26cm) (efficient leaching) and
slightly less than unity retardation-factor (some anion exclusion). The Clayey-aggregates have
shown wide range of small Peclet numbers (9-34), large dispersivity (0.90-3.4cm) increasing with
aggregate size (low leaching in large aggregates) and retardation factor significantly less than unity
(rapid exit due to high anion-exclusion). In contrast to Clayey-aggregates, the high Peclet number
of the Nile-bank and Sands reflects dominant mass-flow transport compared to dispersive transport.
Introduction
Water percolation into soils induces solute-transport and soil modifies the process. Aquifers
receive recharge accompanied by solutes and pollutants passed via soil. Farmers are interested in
removing salts below the root-zone while retaining nutrients. Mass-flow is a major solute
translocation-mode and dispersion occurs due to differences in pore-sizes whereas diffusion and
chemical reactions also take place. Second-order differential equations describe the phenomena.
With the advent of computer codes, the use of soil columns became a helpful lab tool in studying
solute transport.
Before simulating solute transport in soils, one must get the concerned parameters through
experimentation. The hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient, the retardation factor, the dispersivity,
etc… may be obtained by iterative best fit of the BTC curve. Hydraulic parameters [θ (ψ ), K(θ )
and the K(ψ )] are obtained by best-fit of pF, and/or K(θ ) data. We used soil columns to follow-up
the change of C/C0 in function of PV of three samples and their dry-sieve size fractions.
Review of Literature
1. Qualitative and Quantitative BTC Techniques
Two major types of column experiments are in use; qualitative and quantitative. The
qualitative (Swarp et al, 1983, Shehata et al, 1983, Timmons, 1984 and Ozturk and Ozkan, 2002) is
used for studying the effect amendments (e.g. Freitas et al, 1984), testing coated fertilizers (Hanafi
et al, 2002) or for detecting the depth to which solutes would be leached (Deverajani et al, 1995),
etc…. In the quantitative technique, the tracer concentration is measured during BTC runs and the
C/C0 is plotted in function of PV.
The popular approach for the non-linear best fit of BTC data is the convection-dispersion
equation (CDE) based on Fick’s second law. Computer codes are useful for analytically solving the
CDE either for the direct problem (finding the BTC corresponding to a known set of physical and
chemical parameters) or for the inverse-problem (finding the unknown parameters corresponding
to the boundary conditions.) In such codes, the presence of immobile water in dead-end pores is
generally ignored.
4
100
90
80
70 Nile bank
60 Salam sand
50 B-Salam sand
40 Calcareous
30 B-Calcareous
20
w
h
erb
g
y %
fin
10
t
0
10.000 1.000 0.100 0.010
Particle size, mm
5
It consists of “mechanical dispersion” (resulting from the variability of pore-sizes giving
rise to pore-water velocity change) and “molecular diffusion”, D*, (diffusion from a high to a low
concentration point.), which is usually small and neglected.
*
DL = D
With D* the effective molecular diffusion coefficient, cm2/hr,
d10 soil particles effective-diameter (10% cumulative finer)
3.3 Effective molecular diffusion coefficient, D*, cm2/hr
ν x d10
It is always lower than the molecular diffusion coefficient for the same solute in free-water.
* ν
x d10
DL =
P
D =
P
3.4 Retardation factor, R, dimensionless
ρ
k
R = 1 +
θ
Where ρ
k
DL
bulk density, gm/cm3
≈
distribution coefficient, cm3solution/g soil
R<1 implies anion exclusion, precipitation or immobile moisture. For R>1, k is positive
(cation exchange or anion adsorption). R=1 indicates lack of solute reaction with soil.
3.5 Distribution coefficient, k, cm3 solution /g soil
R-1
k =
ρ/θ
When R<1, k will be negative (solute precipitation or anion exclusion, (-k) is the “specific
anion exclusion” (cm3/g soil) and (1–R) is the “relative volume of anion exclusion”
(dimensionless). The BTC may give a better appreciation of adsorption than batch technique
where soil is mixed with a volume of solution to determine kd by Frundlich equation:
q = kd C1/n
With q concentration of adsorbed solute, mmol/kg soil,
C concentration of added solution, mmol/kg soil
n power term (generally considered as unity)
3.6 Solute velocity, ν c, cm/hr
νx
ν
c =
R
3.7 Omega, ω , dimensionless fraction
It represents the ratio of effective molecular diffusion, D*, in soil to molecular diffusion, D,
in free water (for example D=7.2*10-2cm2/hour for Cl- in free-water). Due to the diminishing of
D* in soil compared to D in free water, omega is always a fraction.
D*
ω
=
D
3.8 Longitudinal dispersivity, α , cm
A length represents soil non-homogeneity due to presence of different particle and void
sizes that define the microscopic configuration of the solid-liquid interface.
(DL - D*) L
α
L = ≈
P
ν x
It may be obtained from the slope of the BTC at its inflection point (at C/C0 = 0.50 in simple
cases), Bear and Verruijt (1987). It may be close to the mean diameter of soil particles if soil was
homogeneous, but it becomes larger when soil is non-homogeneous. It may appear small in
numerical models due to a technical problem known as “numerical dispersion”.
3.9 Tortuosity, τ , dimensionless
An expression of the longer flow pathway, Le, compared to straight distance, L, in the
porous medium, so its value is always >1,
6
φ Le
τ= =
ω L
Where φ bulk porosity, fraction
1000 100
80 macro
Nile total RETC
100 60
meso
OBS 40
20 micro
10 0
,cm
ad
h
resu
p
1 2 3
1 Calc. total RETC
1=Nil,2=0.25-0.125mm,3=0.125-0.053mm
OBS
0.1
100
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 80 macro
60
θv 40
meso
20 micro
0
1 2 3 4
1=cal,2=2-1mm,3=1-0.5mm,4=0.5-0.25mm
Figure 2 (Right) Retention curves for three main samples. The smooth fitted-lines are obtained by RETC.
Figure 3 (Left) Pore-size distribution relative to total porosity. Sand is in the upper plot. Nile-bank is in the middle plot.
Calcareous is in the bottom plot. In each case, the raw sample is on the left-hand side followed by its size-
fractions.
Total porosity was used as the saturation state of the pF data. The differences in pore-size
distribution had serious impact on water flow and solute transport (Darcy velocity, the shape of the
breakthrough curve, solute velocity, retardation factor, Peclet number, etc…). The pore-size
distribution of the Nile bank is towards the fine side contrasting to that of Sand. This favored solute
dispersion by Nile sediment relative to Sand (Soil Science Coarse 107, University California Davis,
2004). Tortuosity is high for Nile sample due to its relatively finer texture relative to the Sand
7
sample, high total porosity and to its low value of omega than Sand. Low omega reflects high
reduction of ion-diffusion in the Nile bank relative to that in free water.
2. BTC Runs
The BTC (Figure 4) was constructed according to observations and the parameters obtained
by iterative fitness in CfitM code (IGWMC, 2001). For the sand samples we observed instability of
leachate discharge (due to non-completer saturation or fraction-collector mal-function) and this had
a serious effect on the cumulative PV and resulted in the deformation of the retardation factor and
the modification of the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient (but to a less extent). We rectified
these errors by visually averaging the discharge. The Calcareous sample had the lowest and the
most stable discharge in conformity with its heavy texture and structure (aggregation). The Nile-
bank sample had intermediate discharge between that of Sand and that of the Calcareous sample.
Both the Nile-bank and Sand have single-grain structure. Nile-bank had a discharge that showed
slight upward drift during the BTC run, whereas the discharge of Sand had significantly drifted. It
was impossible to attain complete and sustainable saturation in the sand sample during BTC runs.
One of the possible solutions of pseudo-saturation was the use of a column supplied with tracer
solution at column bottom in order to expel air-bubbles. However, we did not adopt this mode for
the following reasons: a) to test the workability of the downward flow that resembles water flow in
natural soils, b) to keep track for simple machining of the columns, c) to keep track for adding dry
salts on column top, and d) bottom-feeding do not fix the fraction-collector mal-function.
Dispersivity showed the lowest values for the Nile bank sediment (and its size-fractions)
whereas its largest values were for the aggregated Calcareous samples (and its size-fractions). The
Sand samples showed intermediate values for α . This observation may be explained on the basis of
soil texture. The Nile bank sediment has about 80% of its mass mostly <0.25mm in diameter
whereas the Sand sample has about 80% of its mass in a coarser size-range 1.00-0.50mm (Figure
1). This means a larger non-homogeneity of Sands compared to the Nile bank. However, high the
non-homogeneity of the Calcareous samples due to aggregation is outstanding. There were large
differences in pore-water velocity distribution in Sand compared to Nile bank. This affected solute
transport through relatively low Peclet number value for Sand compared to Nile-bank.
For the effective hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient, we observed an opposite trend of the
Peclect number in the Sand and Nile bank samples. The reason is not only that the relative
contribution of less dispersion in the Nile bank (giving smaller DL for the Nile-bank sample) but
also that the average flow velocity (ν x) is smaller in Nile-bank sample compared to Sand. The
shape of the pF curve for Sand and Nile-bank support that explanation. Figures 2 and 3 show a
more smooth distribution for the Nile bank pore-sizes. The Peclet number was higher for the Nile-
bank sediment than for Sand. This may be seen as a discrepancy. However, it seems that the Sand
has a significant dispersive effect on solute transport exceeding the dispersion imposed by Nile-
bank sediments. High transport of solutes with mass-flow in Sand is justified by the dominance of
macro-pores. However, solute dispersion by Sand is also high. This explains the lower Peclet
number value for Sand compared to the Nile-bank. Despite the finer texture of the Nile bank, the
convective solute transport in Nile bank is greater than in Sand.
8
Rectifed and modeled BTC's with NaCl added to thre e natural sediments
1
0.9
Sand total
0.8
CfitM
0.7
Nile total replicate 3
0.6
CfitM
C/C0 0.5
Calcareous total
0.4
CfitM
0.3
C/C0=0.5
0.2
0.1
1 PV
0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
pore volume
Sand has wider pore-size distribution than Nile-bank resulting in a high variation in pore-
water velocity (higher dispersion) in Sand. For the Calcareous aggregates, Peclet number was much
smaller than for Sand. This shows a high contribution of dispersive transport relative to advective
one. The aggregated material has a much higher complicated pore configuration than the single-
grained materials. The small Peclet numbers for the aggregated material may push to expect that DL
parameter might be large. However, this is not the case. This contradiction may be justified by the
significant decrease of average pore-water velocity, ν x, which decreased DL much more than its
increase by the decrease of Peclet number. In the case of the smaller aggregates we observed that
Peclet number is increased (less dispersion by the small aggregates that partially tend to work on
the solute as if they were single grains). DL value decreased in the small aggregates not only due to
the increase of Peclet number but also due to significant decrease of average pore-water velocity.
Conclusions
Dune sands showed a close to unity retardation factor and intermediate dispersivity (0.49-
0.62 cm) indicating moderate leaching efficiency under close to saturated flow. Finer single-grained
materials (Nile sediments) monitored small dispersivity (0.17-0.26 cm) (indicating most efficient
leaching), and very slightly less than unity retardation factor (low anion exclusion). For the
Calcareous aggregates, we observed a wide range of large dispersivity (0.90-3.4 cm) (that increased
with aggregate size, indicating lowest leaching for the largest aggregates) and the retardation factor
was significantly less than unity (indicating rapid Cl exit due to significant anion exclusion.)
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