Analytic solutions to the advective contaminant transport equation with non-linear sorption

This paper considers advective transport of a soluble contaminant through saturated soil with non-linear sorption of the contaminant onto a stationary porous media. The non-linear sorption isotherms considered in the transport analysis are the Langmuir and Freundlich sorption isotherms. A special case of the Freundlich sorption isotherm is the linear sorption isotherm, and it is shown that in this case transport through a homogeneous soil results in the initial concentration profile simply being translated in the direction of the groundwater flow. However, when the sorption isotherm is non-linear the initial concentration profile distorts as it is translated with the groundwater how, leading to the development of concentration shock fronts and rarefactions. Analytic solutions to the non-linear first-order hyperbolic equations are developed for a number of contaminant transport problems of practical significance. It is shown that in the case of the Langmuir sorption isotherms, shock fronts develop at the leading edge of the concentration profile while for the Freundlich sorption isotherm shock fronts may develop at either the leading or trailing edge of the concentration profile. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.