Physical modelling of soil pollution by water miscible contaminant

Abstract

Pollution of soils by miscible contaminants is presented both for saturated and unsaturated soils. Similarity conditions required for modelling the corresponding phenomena in geotechnical centrifuges are presented and discussed. Instrumentation developed in the Univ. of Cambridge and currently used at LNEC, in the project NECER of the European Program TMR, is described. Results obtained on the pos-leakage evolution, spatial and temporal, of contaminated plumes of organic and non-organic solutes are shown. Toe results are commented in the framework of callibration of computational models as well as within the development of recent theories for percolation in disordered media.