A Physically Based Model of Dissolution of Nonaqueous Phase Liquids in the Saturated Zone

The design of remediation strategies for nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL) contaminants involves predicting the rate of NAPL dissolution. A physically based model of an idealized pore geometry was developed to predict nonaqueous phase liquid dissolution rate coefficients. A bundle of parallel pores in series model is used to represent NAPL dissolution as a function of three processes: pore diffusion, corner diffusion, and mixing and multiple contact. The dissolution rate coefficient is expressed in terms of the modified Sherwood number (Sh′) and is a function of Peclet (Pe) number. The model captures the complex behavior of Sh′ versus Pe data for both water-wet (Powers, 1992) and NAPL-wet (Parker et al., 1991) media. For water-wet media, the observed behavior can be broken down into four distinct regions. Each region represents a different physical process controlling NAPL dissolution: the low-Pe region is controlled by pore diffusion; the low- to moderate-Pe region is a transition zone; the moderate-Pe region is controlled by mixing and multiple contact; and the high-Pe region is controlled by corner diffusion. For the high-Pe conditions typical of most column experiments, the model involves only one fitting parameter. For NAPL-wet media, NAPL dissolution is governed exclusively by corner diffusion, and the model again involves only one fitting parameter.