Analysis of Solute Transport from a Source with Finite Leachable Mass

A general approach is developed for the analysis of solute transport from a source with a finite initial mass. The approach uses an effective retardation factor to assign the initial mass that can be leached from the source. Demonstration analyses are presented to illustrate the approach with the numerical simulator MT3DMS. For cases that are tractable with analytical solutions, comparisons between the numerical and analytical results confirm that the proposed approach yields correct results. The approach is straightforward to apply and can accommodate conditions ranging from pure advection to pure diffusion, effectively extending the capabilities of models to simulate sources with finite leachable masses for complex flow fields, reactions and distributions of sources.