Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Tracer Tests in a Fractured Dolomite: 4. Double Porosity, Multiple-Rate Mass Transfer Processes in Two-Well Convergent Flow Tests

Journal Article · · Water Resources Research
OSTI ID:4169

Two-well convergent-flow tracer tests conducted in the Culebra dolomite (Rustler Formation, New Mexico, USA) are analyzed with both single-and multiple-rate, double-porosity models. Parameter estimation is used to determine the mean and standard deviation of a Iog- normal distribution of diffision rate coefficients as well as the advective porosity and longitudinal dispersivity. At two different test sites, both mukirate and single-rate models are capable of accurately modeling the observed data. Estimated model parameters are tested against breakthrough curves obtained along the same transport pathway at a different pumping rate. Implications of the rnultirate mass-transfer model at time and length scales greater than those of the tracer tests include the instantaneous saturation of a fraction of the matrix ~d the possibility of a fraction of the matrix remaining unsaturated at long times.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
4169
Report Number(s):
SAND98-2549J; ON: DE00004169
Journal Information:
Water Resources Research, Journal Name: Water Resources Research
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English