Influence of Particles Sizes and Flow Velocity on the Transport of Polydisperse Fine Particles in Saturated Porous Media: Laboratory Experiments

Fine particle (FP) transport in porous media promotes pollutant transport to groundwater. It behave as pollution vectors. Short pulse injection tests in a laboratory column were performed to investigate the influence of FP size and flow velocity on the transport parameters in a saturated sandy porous medium. FP with two different size distributions with mean diameters of 13.8 µm and 24.3 µm were studied. At different flow velocities, the particle size distribution of the recovered FP was measured. The analytical solution of the convection–dispersion equation with first-order deposition kinetics was used to describe the experimental breakthrough curves (BTCs), and to determine the hydrodispersive parameters of the porous medium. Results show that the hydrodynamic dispersion and the deposition kinetics coefficients evolve with the flow velocity and the size of the initially injected particles. Relationships are proposed to describe the effect of particle size and flow velocity on the hydrodynamic dispersion and the deposition kinetics coefficients.