SBIR-STTR Award

This project is aimed at modeling transport processes of contaminated ground-water and nonconservative solute in saturated soil systems (SSS). There are no models at the present time, that would be able to consider a multiscaled morphology. The suggested methodology will deal with flow and solute modeling in five scale soil systems. The procedure includes: 1-solid-liquid surface scale modeling; 2-pore scale; 3-third (small) scale homogeneous prous medium two-phase and two-concentration modeling; 4-second (large) scale heterogeneous prous layer modeling; and 5-transport modeling in multiple layer of confined or unconfined SSS. In order to simulate such processes a multiscale morphological modeling approach can be applied. Fundamentals of this approach has been already developed by UCLA and can be significantly improved. The novel modeling procedures are believed to give more accurate results while considering the transport of constituents in each of the level of hierarchy. After being developed, this kind of model would be advantageous in comparisons with existing models. It will be achieved by conjunction of the soil parameters, at a given site, and multiscale morphology. This should bring the soil and groundwater modeling science to the next level of development. Anticipated

Benefits:
The research effort will lead to the development of software package to be promoted as a commercial product. This product will be marketed among the potential clients/agencies so they will be able to purchase the product and use it in solving the following groundwater and soil contamination problems: site assessment, contaminants spreading simulation, decision making and site cleanup optimization.