Semianalytical solutions of radioactive or reactive solute transport in variably fractured layered media

Abstract

In this paper, semianalytical solutions are developed for the problem of transport of radioactive or reactive solute tracers through a layered system of heterogeneous fractured media with misaligned fractures. The tracer transport equations in the nonflowing matrix account for (1) diffusion, (2) surface diffusion, (3) mass transfer between mobile and immobile water fractions, (4) linear kinetic or equilibrium physical, chemical, or combined sorption or colloid filtration, and (5) radioactive decay or first-order chemical reactions. The tracer transport equations in the fractures account for the same processes, in addition to advection and hydrodynamic dispersion. Any number of radioactive decay daughter products (or products of a linear, first-order reaction chain) can be tracked. The solutions, which are analytical in the Laplace space, are numerically inverted to provide the solution in time and can accommodate any number of fractured and/or porous layers. The solutions are verified using analytical and numerical solutions for limiting cases of solute and colloid transport through fractured and porous media. The effect of important parameters on the transport of 3H, 99Tc, 237Np, and 239Pu (and its daughters) is investigated in several test problems involving layered geological systems of varying complexity.