Waterfall Algorithm as a tool of investigation the geometrical features of granular porous media

The paper describes the so-called Waterfall Algorithm, which may be used to calculate a set of parameters characterising the spatial structure of granular porous media, such as shift ratio, collision density ratio, consolidation ratio, path length and minimum tortuosity. The study is performed for 1800 different two-dimensional random pore structures. In each geometry, 100 individual paths are calculated. The impact of porosity and the particle size on the above-mentioned parameters is investigated. It was stated in the paper, that the minimum tortuosity calculated by the Waterfall Algorithm cannot be used directly as a representative tortuosity of pore channels in the Kozeny or the Carman meaning. However, it may be used indirect by making the assumption that a unambiguous relationship between the representative tortuosity and the minimum tortuosity exists. It was also stated, that the new parameters defined in the present study are sensitive on the porosity and the particle size and may be therefore applied as indicators of the geometry structure of granular media. The Waterfall Algorithm is compared with other methods of determining the tortuosity: A-Star Algorithm, Path Searching Algorithm, Random Walk technique, Path Tracking Method and the methodology of calculating the hydraulic tortuosity based on the Lattice Boltzmann Method. A very short calculation time is the main advantage of the Waterfall Algorithm, what meant, that it may be applied in a very large granular porous media.

Electrokinetic-enhanced removal of toluene from physically heterogeneous granular porous media

Electrokinetics (EK) was applied to enhance biodegradation of toluene in the low hydraulic conductivity (K) zone of a physically heterogeneous water-saturated granular porous media. The hypothesis tested was that EK transport processes, which operate independently of advection, can deliver a limiting amendment, nitrate, across a high-K–low-K boundary to stimulate bioremediation. Two types of experiment were evaluated: (1) bench-scale tests that represented the active EK system and physically heterogeneous sediment configuration; (2) microcosms that represented biodegradation in the bench-scale tests under ideal conditions. The bench-scale experiment results showed a rapid decrease in toluene concentration during the application of EK that was attributed to electroosmotic removal from low-K zones. Comparison of toluene removal rates by electroosmosis and biodegradation (microcosm) confirmed that electroosmosis was the most effective mechanism under the conditions evaluated. Overall, this work challenges the original hypothesis and indicates that, at the field scale, the most favourable conditions for biodegradation are likely to be achieved by applying EK to increase contaminant flux across the low-K–high-K boundary (out of the low-K zone) and allowing biodegradation to occur in the high-K zone either by natural attenuation or enhanced by amendment addition.Supplementary material: Supplementary material is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5174554

Effect of freeze/thaw on aggregation and transport of nano-TiO2 in saturated porous media

Research has focused on nanoparticle (NP) aggregation and transport behavior in saturated granular porous media, but few studies have looked at the effect that temperature variability associated with winter conditions will have on engineered NPs.