Modeling contaminant transport in a three-phase groundwater system with the Freundlich-type retardation factor

Colloid-facilitated contaminant transport was simulated in this study for the three-phase groundwater system where one or more sorption processes can be described with nonlinear sorption isotherm (Freundlich isotherm). A concise form of contaminant transport equation was derived from the mass balance equation of the contaminant. The developed model was numerically solved by the finite difference method along with the Picard iteration. The simulation results were used to quantitatively analyze the previously reported column data showing nonlinear sorption behavior. The analysis led to the following observations: (i) increases of the distribution coefficient of contaminant between the aqueous and solid phases (K(S)c) and the one between the dissolved natural organic matters and solid phase ( K(S)OM) generate less facilitation (i.e., late arrival of contaminant breakthrough curves (BTCs), and the distribution coefficient of contaminant between the aqueous and the solid phases (K(OM)c) gives the opposite result; (ii) the increase of the Freundlich constant for the sorption isotherm between the aqueous and the solid phases (N(S)c) yields the late arrival of BTC, and the other two Freundlich constants produce the opposite results; (iii) the Freundlich constants generally yield a sharper front as the BTC arrives at later pore volumes, while the distribution coefficients generally yield a more spread of the BTC as it arrives at later volumes. This modeling study shows that transport modeling provides a more efficient analyzing tool than the retardation factor alone concerning the colloid-facilitated contaminant transport with nonlinear sorption processes.