Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M....

16
Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in physically and chemically heterogeneous aquifer formations Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 181 EWRE, 1351 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2125, USA (Received 17 September 1997; accepted 3 March 1998) The migration and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) in aquifer formations is typically believed to be controlled by physical heterogeneities. This belief is based upon the assumption that permeability and capillary properties are determined by the soil texture. Capillarity and relative permeability, however, will also depend on porous medium wettability characteristics. This wettability may vary spatially in a formation due to variations in aqueous phase chemistry, contaminant aging, and/or variations in mineralogy and organic matter distributions. In this work, a two-dimensional multiphase flow simulator is modified to simulate coupled physical and chemical formation heterogeneity. To model physical heterogeneity, a spatially correlated permeability field is generated, and then related to the capillary pressure- saturation function according to Leverett scaling. Spatial variability of porous medium wettability is assumed to be correlated with the natural logarithm of the intrinsic permeability. The influence of wettability on the hysteretic hydraulic property relations is also modeled. The simulator is then employed to investigate the potential influence of coupled physical and chemical heterogeneity on DNAPL flow and entrapment. For reasonable ranges of wettability characteristics, simulations demonstrate that spatial variations in wettability can have a dramatic impact on DNAPL distributions. Higher organic saturations, increased lateral spreading, and decreased depth of infiltration were predicted when the contact angle was varied spatially. When chemical heterogeneity was defined by spatial variation of organic- wet solid fractions (fractional wettability porous media), however, the resultant organic saturation distributions were more similar to those for perfectly water-wet media, due to saturation dependent wettability effects on the hydraulic property relations. q 1998 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved Keywords: multiphase flow, NAPL, wettability, heterogeneity, numerical model. NOMENCLATURE D denotes drainage f weighting function F o organic wet mass fraction g acceleration due to gravity (m/s 2 ) I denotes imbibition k intrinsic permeability (m 2 ) k avg average intrinsic permeability (m 2 ) k ro relative permeability of organic k rw relative permeability of water m parameter equal to 1 ¹ 2/n Advances in Water Resources Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 117–132, 1998 q 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0309-1708/98/$ - see front matter PII: S 0 3 0 9 - 1 7 0 8 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 0 0 5 - 0 117 *Corresponding author. Tel: +1 313 936-3175; fax: +1 313 763- 2275; e-mail: [email protected]

Transcript of Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M....

Page 1: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phaseliquids in physically and chemicallyheterogeneous aquifer formations

Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. RathfelderUniversity of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 181 EWRE, 1351 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2125,

USA

(Received 17 September 1997; accepted 3 March 1998)

The migration and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) inaquifer formations is typically believed to be controlled by physical heterogeneities.This belief is based upon the assumption that permeability and capillary properties aredetermined by the soil texture. Capillarity and relative permeability, however, willalso depend on porous medium wettability characteristics. This wettability may varyspatially in a formation due to variations in aqueous phase chemistry, contaminantaging, and/or variations in mineralogy and organic matter distributions. In this work, atwo-dimensional multiphase flow simulator is modified to simulate coupled physicaland chemical formation heterogeneity. To model physical heterogeneity, a spatiallycorrelated permeability field is generated, and then related to the capillary pressure-saturation function according to Leverett scaling. Spatial variability of porous mediumwettability is assumed to be correlated with the natural logarithm of the intrinsicpermeability. The influence of wettability on the hysteretic hydraulic propertyrelations is also modeled. The simulator is then employed to investigate the potentialinfluence of coupled physical and chemical heterogeneity on DNAPL flow andentrapment. For reasonable ranges of wettability characteristics, simulationsdemonstrate that spatial variations in wettability can have a dramatic impact onDNAPL distributions. Higher organic saturations, increased lateral spreading, anddecreased depth of infiltration were predicted when the contact angle was variedspatially. When chemical heterogeneity was defined by spatial variation of organic-wet solid fractions (fractional wettability porous media), however, the resultantorganic saturation distributions were more similar to those for perfectly water-wetmedia, due to saturation dependent wettability effects on the hydraulic propertyrelations.q 1998 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved

Keywords:multiphase flow, NAPL, wettability, heterogeneity, numerical model.

NOMENCLATURE

D denotes drainage

f weighting function

Fo organic wet mass fraction

g acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)

I denotes imbibition

k intrinsic permeability (m2)

kavg average intrinsic permeability (m2)

kro relative permeability of organic

krw relative permeability of water

m parameter equal to 1¹ 2/n

Advances in Water ResourcesVol. 22, No. 2, pp. 117–132, 1998q 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd

Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved0309-1708/98/$ - see front matterPII: S 0 3 0 9 - 1 7 0 8 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 0 0 5 - 0

117

*Corresponding author. Tel: +1 313 936-3175; fax: +1 313 763-2275; e-mail: [email protected]

Adva

Page 2: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

n pore size distribution parameter of vanGenuchten72 capillary pressure model

o organic liquid

Pc capillary pressure (N/m2, cm water)

Prefc capillary pressure at reference location (N/m2,

cm water)

P*c capillary pressure that accounts for wettability(N/m2, cm water)

Po pressure of organic phase (N/m2, cm water)

Pw pressure of water phase (N/m2, cm water)

Q source/sink term (g/cm3s)

R pore radius (cm)

s solid

S saturation (cm3/cm3)

Sio ‘immobile’ organic saturation (cm3/cm3)

Siw ‘immobile’ water saturation (cm3/cm3)

Sot entrapped organic saturation (cm3/cm3)

Somax maximum organic saturation (cm3/cm3)

Somin minimum organic saturation (cm3/cm3)

Smot maximum entrapped organic saturation (cm3/cm3)

Smwt maximum entrapped water saturation (cm3/cm3)

Sro residual organic saturation (cm3/cm3)

S*ro residual organic saturation that accounts forwettability (cm3/cm3)

Srw residual water saturation (cm3/cm3)

S*rw residual water saturation that accounts for wett-ability (cm3/cm3)

Swt entrapped water saturation (cm3/cm3)

Swmax maximum water saturation (cm3/cm3)

Swmin minimum water saturation (cm3/cm3)

SWmin minimum wetting fluid saturation (cm3/cm3)

S̄eff effective saturation

S̄app apparent saturation

w water

x two-dimensional spatial coordinate vector(m,m)

z vertical direction (m)

a parameter for reciprocal of entry pressure (1/cm)

b correlation coefficient

« porosity (cm3/cm3)

l ref shifting parameter at reference location (cm)

l refhys hysteretic shifting parameter at reference loca-

tion (cm)

m viscosity of the fluid (g/cms)

y chemical heterogeneity (Fo or fsow)

yavg average chemical heterogeneity (Fo or fsow)

yn normalizing factor for chemical heterogeneity(1808 or 1)

r density of the fluid (g/cm3)

jow interfacial tension (N/m)

fsow equilibrium contact angle (degree)

1 INTRODUCTION

The flow and entrapment of nonaqueous phase liquids(NAPLs) in the saturated zone is typically believed to becontrolled by layers and lenses of contrasting soiltexture.20,32,45,60,73 Inherent in previous studies is theassumption that water preferentially wets the soil surfaces.Under such conditions, water will be retained by capillaryforces in smaller pores and/or finer textured soil, whereasthe NAPL will be found in larger pores and/or coarser tex-tured material. In multiphase scenarios, the ability of the soilto transmit water and NAPL will be governed by the spatialand temporal saturation distribution, as well as by the aqui-fer intrinsic permeability structure. Physical heterogeneityalso affects NAPL entrapment, which may occur due to

118 S. A. Bradfordet al.

Adva

Page 3: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

pore-scale processes such as snap-off,18 or larger scaleprocesses such as aqueous phase by-passing of NAPLfilled coarse texture layers,73 and NAPL pooling abovelow permeability layers. With their focus on soil texturevariations, the aforementioned studies have failed toconsider the potential influence of chemical heterogeneities,i.e. spatially varying wettability, on NAPL transport andcapillary retention.

Wettability, the pore-scale distribution of immisciblefluids near solid surfaces, significantly influences the capil-lary pressure6 and relative permeability27 relations. Further-more, residual NAPL saturation is known to be sensitive tomedium wettability.56 In natural porous media the wettabil-ity can vary spatially due to contaminant aging,62 and/orvariations in aqueous chemistry,23 mineralogy,4 organicmatter distributions,21 and surface roughness.54 Wettabilityeffects on hydraulic property relations have been reported tobe saturation independent25,55 or saturation depen-dent.12,13,15,28,66The latter can occur in fractional wettabil-ity porous media due to the presence of water (w) andorganic (o) wet solids. In the petroleum literature, fractionalwettability has been recognized as a ubiquitous condition.4–7

The manipulation of soil wettability has been proposedfor use in remediation or contaminant migration controlthrough the emplacement of organic-wet zones or thecreation ofin situchemical reactions.17,35,36,75For example,Hayworth and Burris35 proposed the use of cationicsurfactants to created an enhanced sorption zone for misci-ble organic contaminants. Remediation options such as theuse of nonionic surfactants or biodegradation could subse-quently be employed within this enhanced sorbent zone toremove the retained organic contaminants from the aquifer.Note that such remediation approaches are not limited tosorption of soluble organic contaminants, these methodscould equally be applied to separate phase organic liquidswhich are retained by capillary forces in organic-wet zones.The use of organic-wet capillary barriers near landfills and/or underground storage tanks is an unexplored protectivemeasure for NAPL spill containment.

Multiphase flow simulators are commonly employed topredict the spatial and temporal distributions of organicliquids at hazardous waste sites. Early modeling studieswere restricted to homogeneous systems. More recently,studies have explored the role of physical heterogeneitieson NAPL migration and entrapment.20,33,44–46Simulationspresented by Kueper and Frind45 and Essaid and Hess33

demonstrate that even relatively minor degrees of physicalheterogeneity, can significantly affect the degree of lateralorganic spreading. The correlation of intrinsic permeabilityand capillary pressure relations was also shown to affect thedegree of lateral spreading. Kueper and Gerhard46 investi-gated the influence of source size and strength on theinfiltration rate and structure of a NAPL spill. Infiltrationrates were found to strongly depend on the source size andpermeability field correlation structure. Dekker andAbriola20 observed increased sensitivity to the permeabilitydistribution statistics and the capillary pressure-intrinsic

permeability correlation for increasing formation heteroge-neity. These authors also demonstrated that the spill releaserate, natural hydraulic gradient, and cross-correlation ofresidual saturations had only minor influence on NAPLdistributions in heterogeneous formations. In general, appli-cation of multiphase flow models to laboratory and fielddata has demonstrated that inclusion of capillary entrapmentand hysteresis is essential for accurate description ofobserved behavior.32,47,60,71Numerical studies further indi-cate that immiscible flow pathways are extremely sensitiveto small-scale heterogeneities in permeability and capillarycharacteristics.20,45All reviewed numerical multiphase stu-dies, however, have assumed that the porous media werestrongly water-wet. Based upon predicted sensitivity tocapillary behavior, this suggests that large errors may beintroduced into numerical simulations when the water-wetassumption does not hold.

In natural subsurface systems highly irregular distribu-tions of NAPLs have been observed.32,60The superpositionof physical and chemical heterogeneities in such environ-ments will determine the flow and entrapment behavior ofNAPLs. At present, very little research has investigated theinfluence of wettability on multiphase flow and entrapment.An improved understanding of NAPL migration and entrap-ment in physically and chemically heterogeneous systemsshould aid in the characterization of contaminant sources inthe field and facilitate the development and assessment ofremediation strategies. This work presents modifications toa multiphase flow simulator to account for subsurface che-mical and physical heterogeneities. The numerical model issubsequently employed to explore the potential impact thatwettability can have on the flow and entrapment of NAPLsin aquifer formations.

2 MODEL DESCRIPTION

The equations for the flow of two immiscible fluids in aporous medium may be written as (e.g. Abriola1):

]

]t«riSi

ÿ �¼ =· k

rikri

mi· =Pi ¹ rig=zÿ �� �

þ Qi (1)

wherePi is the pressure,Si is the saturation,« is the por-osity of the medium,m i is the viscosity,k is the intrinsicpermeability,kri is the relative permeability,r i is the den-sity, g is the acceleration due to gravity,Qi is a source/sinkterm,z is the positive downward vertical direction,= is thetwo-dimensional (cross-sectional) gradient operator, andthe subscripti denotes the fluid phases (i.e.,i ¼ o,w fororganic and water, respectively). The set of partial differ-ential equations given by eqn (1) are coupled through thehydraulic property relations which are discussed inSections 2.1 and 2.2 of this paper. Mass conservationrequires that the following constraint is met:

So þ Sw ¼ 1 (2)

In the work presented herein, an extensively modified form

Flow and entrapment of DNAPLs in chemically heterogeneous aquifer formations 119

Adva

Page 4: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

of the VALOR model2 known as M-VALOR is used tosolve the set of coupled partial differential equationsgiven by eqn (1). M-VALOR is a finite difference codewhich uses an iterative implicit pressure–explicit saturation(IMPES) scheme to solve the resulting set of algebraicequations. The IMPES scheme solves a set of weakly non-linear equations inPw using a sparse unsymmetric linearsolver employing a variant of Gauss elimination.29,30

Following the solution of the pressure equations, the expli-cit solution for the saturations is obtained using the massbalance expressions. The saturations are then updated in thepressure equation and the process is repeated until conver-gence is achieved. The M-VALOR model has been shownto be a robust, computationally efficient code for thesimulation of a wide variety of multiphase flowproblems.20,24,63,64

The solution of eqn (1) requires knowledge of the fluid/matrix flow properties. The generation of spatial distribu-tions of permeability and capillary parameters is discussedbelow, followed by a description of the modeling ofwettability effects on these parameters. Terminologyemployed in this work pertaining to residual, effective,and apparent saturations under various porous mediumwettability conditions is defined in Appendix A. A discus-sion of the influence of wettability on fluid entrapment isalso provided in Appendix A. For the reader’s convenience,a notation section is included at the beginning of the paper.

2.1 Spatial variability of parameters

In physically heterogeneous porous media the intrinsic per-meability varies spatially with changes in soil texture. Theturning bands method69 was used in this work to generatespatially correlated heterogeneous permeability distribu-tions for model input. This method assumes a log normaldistribution of the intrinsic permeability68,74with a specifiedmean and covariance structure. The spatial correlationstructure of intrinsic permeability is described using anexponentially decaying covariance function.68

Two methods for describing formation chemical hetero-geneity are considered herein: specification of the contactangle (fsow) or of the organic-wet solid mass fraction (Fo).The contact angle is an index of wettability that is typicallymeasured by placing a drop of the organic liquid on a flatsolid that is immersed in water. The contact angle isthen defined as the angle between the solid–water and

water–organic contact lines. Contact angles measured inthis manner, however, are only a crude approximation tothose governing behavior in natural porous media due tospatial variability in the local solid surface wetting charac-teristics. Alternatively, capillary pressure data may be usedto infer an effective or ‘macroscopic’ contact angle of theporous medium (cf. Eqn (15)).12,55Subsequent references tofsow in this work refer to such a macroscopic concept of thecontact angle. Whenfsow , 908 water is classified asthe wetting fluid, whereas, forfsow . 908 the water is thenonwetting fluid (neutral wettability occurs forfsow ¼ 908).Values ofFo are used herein to quantify the wettability ofsystems in which both water- and organic-wet solids occurat the pore-scale. Under conditions of fractional wettability,macroscopic wettability behavior has been found to dependon the saturation history.13

At present, there is a paucity of data on subsurface varia-tions in wetting properties. Treiberet al.70and Chilingar andYen19 measured contact angles for various polished coresamples and petroleum reservoir fluids; however, nosystematic study of contact angle variations for a singlereservoir or aquifer has been reported. Some information,however, is available pertaining to the spatial variability ofadsorption parameters at the field scale.34,65 In these andrelated theoretical investigations, adsorption parametershave been assumed to be correlated with subsurface physi-cal heterogeneity.9,10,34,40,53,76In this work the contactangle or organic-wet fraction is similarly considered to becorrelated with the intrinsic permeability. To account forthe correlation between chemical (contact angle ororganic-wet fraction) and physical (intrinsic permeability)heterogeneity, the following exponential relationship isemployed:

y(x) ¼ yavg exp b ln k(x)ÿ �

¹ ln(kavg)ÿ �� �

(3)

Here y denotes the porous medium wettability parameter(fsow or Fo), x is the two-dimensional spatial coordinatevector, b is the correlation coefficient, andyavg and kavg

are the geometric mean of the wettability parameter andintrinsic permeability, respectively. Note that ln(k(x)) andln(y(x)) are positively correlated for 0, b # 1, and nega-tively correlated for ¹ 1 # b , 0. Values ofb closer tozero indicate a weaker correlation.

In this work, the capillary pressure (Pc)–saturation rela-tions are directly correlated with the intrinsic permeability

Table 1. Reference soil parameters

Parameter Symbol Value

Porosity (eqn 4)) « ref 0.340Intrinsic permeability (eqn 4)) kref 5.00 3 10¹12 m2

Reciprocal entry pressure (eqn 5)) aD 2.94 3 10¹4 m2/NPc–S model parameter (eqn 5)) n 4.993Pc–S model parameter (eqn 5)) m 0.599Drainage pore radius (eqn 8)) Rref

D (0.5) 3.493 10¹3 cmImbibition pore radius (eqn 8)) Rref

I (0.5) 4.813 10¹3 cmInterfacial tension (eqn 8)) j ref

ow 0.026 N/m

120 S. A. Bradfordet al.

Adva

Page 5: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

field according to Leverett scaling:50

Pc(S̄appw ,x) ¼

kref«(x)k(x)«ref

!0:5

Prefc (S̄app

w ) (4)

wherePc ¼ Po ¹ Pw is defined herein with respect to wateras the wetting phase,S̄app

w is the apparent water saturationwhich is defined in Appendix A, and the superscript ‘ref’denotes the indicated parameters for the reference soil.Researchers have found that Leverett scaling yields reason-able predictions ofPc–S relations for unconsolidatedsands45,50 and sandstones.31 Table 1 provides values ofthe reference parameters employed herein. In this workthe porosity is assumed to be constant («(x) ¼ « ref) through-out the simulation domain.

The referencePc–S relation in eqn (4), denoted withsuperscript ‘ref’, is described with the van Genuchten72

Pc–Smodel:

Prefc (S̄app

w ) ¼1

aD, IS̄app

¹

1m

w ¹ 1

26643775

1n

(5)

wheren is related to the slope at the inflection point of thePc–Scurve,aD,I is the reciprocal of the entry pressure thatdepends on whether water is draining (D) or imbibing (I),and m was chosen to be equal to 1¹ 2/n to facilitate theimplementation of the relative permeability model (eqns(12) and (13)). The reference soil was chosen suchthat water perfectly wets the solid surface (fsow ¼ 08).Consequently, thePc–S relations generated for other loca-tions according to eqn (4) are also for perfectly wettedmedia.

2.2 Wettability effects on hysteretic hydraulicproperties

The procedure for incorporating the influence of wettabilityon the hydraulic property relations, at a given spatial loca-tion, is discussed below. Whenfsow is independent ofsaturation, wettability effects on thePc–S relations areobtained by scaling the perfectly wetted capillary pressurerelation (cf. Eqn (4)) with the macroscopic contact angle atthat spatial location:

Ppc(S̄app

W ) ¼ cos(fsow)Pc(S̄appW ) (6)

Here S̄appW is the apparent wetting fluid saturation which is

defined in Appendix A, andPpc denotes the wettability

dependent capillary pressure (Po–Pw). Note thatPpc and

Pc are functions ofS̄appW , since Pc (cf. Eqn (4)) is also

written in terms of the wetting fluid saturation. Conse-quently,S̄app

W equalsS̄appw for fsow # 908, while S̄app

W equalsS̄app

o for fsow . 908. Hysteresis in thePc–S relations isaccounted for herein by makinga I (cf. Eqn (5)) a functionof the effective minimum wetting fluid saturation (S̄eff

Wmin),which determines the maximum amount of entrapped

nonwetting fluid (cf. Appendix eqn (A7)), as:

aI ¼ (2¹ S̄effWmin)aD (7)

Recall that S̄effWmin equals the effective minimum water

saturation(S̄effwmin) for fsow , 908, and the effective mini-

mum organic saturation(S̄effomin) for fsow . 908. The value of

aD is assumed to be constant in time. Note thata I ¼ 2aD

whenS̄effWmin ¼ 0 as suggested by the data presented by Kool

and Parker.42 At saturation reversal points (a change fromimbibition to drainage, or drainage to imbibition) the valueof a was empirically transitioned froma I to/fromaD over asaturation range of 0.05 to insure a smooth change in capil-lary pressure.

For fractional wettability soil (saturation dependentwettability) thePc(S̄

appw ) relation (eqn (4)) is ‘shifted’:14

Ppc(S̄app

w ) ¼ Pc(S̄appw ) ¹

jowRrefD, I (0:5)

jrefowRD, I (0:5)

lrefD, I (Fo) (8)

wherel refD,I is the shifting parameter that depends onFo and

whether water is draining or imbibing. Herejow is theinterfacial tension, andRD,I(0.5) is the value of the poreradius that empties during main drainage and imbibitionat an apparent water saturation equal to 0.5 (RD,I(0.5) ¼

2jow/Pc(0.5)). Table 1 provides values for the correspond-ing reference soil parametersj ref

ow andRrefD,I(0.5). Note in eqn

(8) that l refD,I is scaled by the ratiosRref

D;I ð0:5Þ=RD;I ð0:5Þ andjow/j ref

ow to account for differences in the pore size andinterfacial tension, respectively, of the reference systemand other fluid-porous medium systems. Bradford andLeij14 derived the following regression relations, whichare employed herein, from fitted values ofl ref

D,I (units incm of water) to fractional wettability main drainage andimbibition Pc–S data:

lrefD (Fo) ¼ 11:35p Fo þ 1:81 (r2 ¼ 0:994) (9)

lrefI (Fo) ¼ 16:8 p Fo þ 0:72 (r2 ¼ 0:958) (10)

Hysteresis in the fractional wettabilityPc–S curve is alsomodeled by makinga I a function of the effective minimumwater saturation as in eqn (7). In addition, the dependenceof l ref

D,I on S̄effwmin must also be considered since the porous

medium is initially water saturated. In this case it isassumed thatl ref

D,I depends on̄Seffwmin as:

lrefhys¼ (1¹ S̄eff

wmin)lrefD, I (11)

wherel refD,I is given in eqn (9) and eqn (10), andl ref

hys is theshift parameter modified for hysteresis. Note that accordingto eqn (11) the value ofl ref

hys is zero at complete watersaturation, and maximum at the residual water saturation(l ref

hys ¼ 0 for S̄effwmin ¼ 1, andl ref

hys ¼ l refD,I for S̄eff

wmin ¼ 0).The influence of wettability variations on the relative

permeability relations are modeled with the modifiedBurdine16 model according to the approach presented in

Flow and entrapment of DNAPLs in chemically heterogeneous aquifer formations 121

Adva

Page 6: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

Bradfordet al.:11

HereS̄effw , S̄eff

o , S̄effwt , andS̄eff

ot are the effective water, organic,entrapped water, and entrapped organic saturations, respec-tively, which are discussed in more detail in Appendix A,R(S) is the pore radius distribution (R(Sw) ¼ Pc(Sw)/2jow),and S is a dummy saturation variable of integration. Theempirical weighting function in eqn (12) and eqn (13),f(fsow), is defined as:

f (fsow) ¼12

1¹ cos(fsow)� �

(14)

Eqn (12) and eqn (13) are based upon the division of poresinto two wettability classes. The first and second

expressions on the right-hand side of eqn (12) and eqn

(13) are determined by the pore class of the wetting andnonwetting fluid, respectively. The wettability of theporous medium is used to determine the contributions ofthe pore classes tokr according to eqn (14). Tortuosity ofthe flow path is empirically accounted for in eqn (12) andeqn (13) with(S̄eff

w ¹ S̄effwt )2 and (S̄eff

o ¹ S̄effot )2, respectively.

Eqn (12) and eqn (13) predict that an increase in the contactangle (measured through water) will be accompanied by anincrease in the waterkr and a decrease in the organickr.Such behavior is consistent with experimental observationsof Donaldson and Dean,26 Owens and Archer58 andMcCaffery and Bennion.52

krw(Sappw ) ¼ S

effw ¹ S̄eff

wt

� �2 1¹ f (fsow)� � ∫S̄app

w

0R(S)2 dSþ f (fsow)

∫1

1¹ S̄appw

R(S)2 dS∫1

0R(S)2 dS

(12)

kro(S̄appo ) ¼ (S̄eff

o ¹ S̄effot )2

f (fsow)∫S̄app

o

0R(S)2 dSþ 1¹ f (fsow)

� � ∫1

1¹ S̄appo

R(S)2 dS∫1

0R(S)2 dS

(13)

Fig. 1. HystereticPc–S–kr relations whenfsow ¼ 0 and 1808.

122 S. A. Bradfordet al.

Adva

Page 7: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

The above relative permeability relationships also dependon saturation history as a result of nonwetting fluid entrap-ment. Similar to the procedure of Lenhard and Parker,49 eqn(12) and eqn (13) account for nonwetting fluid entrapmentthrough the dependence of the relative permeabilities onapparent saturations. Additionally, the reduction in porespace accessible for fluid flow due to nonwetting fluidentrapment must be considered. This is accomplished ana-logous to the procedure employed by Lenhard and Parker.49

The details of this additional modification are not given ineqn (12) and eqn (13) for simplicity.

The calculation of relative permeability relations accord-ing to eqn (12) and eqn (13) is straightforward when wett-ability effects are independent of saturation, i.e. when thereis a constant contact angle at a given location. For the caseof fractional wettability the contact angle at a given locationis saturation dependent. This saturation dependence can beestimated fromPc–S data according to scaling argumentsas:12

fsow(S̄appw ) ¼ cos¹ 1 Pp

c(S̄appw )

Pc(S̄appw )

� �(15)

wherePpc(S̄app

w ) is given by eqn (8) andPc(S̄appw ) is given by

eqn (4). The calculated value offsow(S̄appw ) is subsequently

used in eqns (12)–(14) to estimate the relative permeabilityrelations.

Eqns (3)–(15) comprise the hydraulic property modelthat was implemented in M-VALOR to account for physicaland chemical heterogeneity. To illustrate results from thisconstitutive model, Figs 1 and 2 show predicted hystereticPc–S–kr relations whenfsow¼ 0 and 180 degrees, and whenFo ¼ 50 and 100%, respectively (cf. Table 1 for referencesoil characteristics). Note in Figs 1 and 2 that very differenthydraulic property relations can be obtained for a givenporous medium simply by assuming different wettabilitycharacteristics. The capillary pressure curves can haveexclusively positive or negative values of capillary pressure(Pow ¼ Po ¹ Pw) as shown in Fig. 1, or can exhibit satura-tion dependent wettability effects as demonstrated in Fig. 2.Porous media with saturation dependent wettability havedistinct differences in hydraulic property relations for thevarious drainage and imbibition cycles; i.e., positive andnegativePc which depends on the saturation history. Therelative permeability relations are also dramaticallyinfluenced by wettability effects due to differences in thepore-scale fluid configuration and entrapment.

Fig. 2. HystereticPc–S–kr relations whenFo ¼ 50 and 100%.

Flow and entrapment of DNAPLs in chemically heterogeneous aquifer formations 123

Adva

Page 8: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

3 SIMULATIONS

The simulated release and redistribution of tetrachloroethy-lene (PCE) in one- and two-dimensional subsurface systemsis presented below. The relevant physical properties of PCEthat were employed in simulations are: density equal to1625.0 kg/m3, viscosity equal to 0.00089 kg/ms, and inter-facial tension equal to 0.045 N/m. Table 2 contains asummary of the simulated permeability distribution charac-teristics. Other parameters employed in the simulations aregiven in Table 1. Case #1 is for a physically homogeneoussoil column, case #2 employs formation statistics of theBorden aquifer,74 case #3 utilizes formation statistics simi-lar to an aquifer characterized by Jusselet al.,39 and case #4is for a highly variable hypothetical aquifer. Dekker andAbriola20 recently conducted a systematic investigation ofthe effects of physical heterogeneity on PCE infiltration andredistribution for cases #2 and #3. The influence of porousmedium wettability on PCE migration and entrapment isinvestigated in the physically homogeneous soil columnsimulations (Case #1). The coupling of physical and chemi-cal heterogeneity is explored with cases #2–#4. Note inTable 2 that physical heterogeneity increases with thevariance of the natural logarithm of the intrinsic permeabil-ity. Specific information on the nodal spacing, and boundaryand initial conditions is given below.

3.1 Physically homogeneous soil column

In this section results from one-dimensional simulations ofPCE infiltration and redistribution into a physically homo-geneous soil column (cf. Table 2 case #1) having variouschemical characteristics will be presented. The model

domain consists of an initially water saturated domain thatextends 5 m in the vertical direction. Nodal spacing in thevertical direction was 0.1 m. A no flow boundary conditionfor water was enforced at the top of the model domain,while constant hydrostatic pressure boundary conditions(referenced to atmospheric pressure at the domain surface)were employed at the bottom boundary. A constant infiltra-tion velocity of 1.5 cm/day of PCE was initially introducedat the top node over a period of 5 days, after which a no flowboundary condition was set at the top node while PCE wasallowed to redistribute.

Fig. 3 shows the predicted PCE saturation distributionwith depth (cf. Table 2 case #1) after 10 days for contactangles equal to 08, 458, 908, 1358, and 1808. Demond22

reported that the contact angle for PCE measured throughwater was 308 on calcite, 668 on glass, and 1278 on Teflon.Note in Fig. 3 that a lower depth of PCE infiltration and,hence, higher organic saturation are predicted asfsow

increases. The observed trends in Fig. 3 occur due todecreasingkro and Pc with increasing contact angles.Hence, the mobility of the organic decreases and theporous medium retains the organic more effectively.

Fig. 4 shows the PCE saturation distribution with depthafter 10 days (cf. Table 2 case #1) for porous media havingorganic-wet mass fractions equal to 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%.Similar to Fig. 3, observe in Fig. 4 that a lower depth of PCEinfiltration and higher organic saturation are also achievedas the organic-wet fraction increases. Comparison of Figs 3and 4 reveals that wettability effects on the predicted satura-tion distribution were much more pronounced for systemshaving a constant contact angle (Fig. 3) than for fractionalwettability media (Fig. 4). To explain these trendsthe dependence ofl ref

hys on S̄effwmin (cf. Eqn (11)) must be

Table 2. Permeability distribution characteristics

Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4

Mean ln(k) ¹ 25.28 ¹ 25.23 ¹ 25.23 ¹ 25.19Variance ln(k) 0.000 0.229 0.956 1.912Horizontal correlation length (m) ` 5.100 5.100 5.100Vertical correlation length (m) ` 0.210 0.210 0.210Anisotropy factor 1.000 0.500 0.500 0.500

Fig. 3. PCE saturation distribution with depth after 10 days forcontact angles equal to 08, 458, 908, 1358, and 1808.

Fig. 4. PCE saturation distribution with depth after 10 days fororganic-wet fractions equal to 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%.

124 S. A. Bradfordet al.

Adva

Page 9: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

considered. For the systems shown in Fig. 4 the value ofS̄eff

wmin was greater than 90% and, hence, only a small portionof the potentially organic-wet sites were exposed to organicliquid. Increasing the infiltration rate would lead to lowervalues of S̄eff

wmin and, consequently, the predicted organicliquid distribution would become more similar to thatshown in Fig. 3.

Capillary barrier effects on organic liquid migration areknown to occur at soil textural interfaces, due to abruptchanges in the pore size distribution (i.e., Wilsonet al.73).Barrier effects can also occur at interfaces denoting achange in soil surface wetting characteristics. Fig. 5 showsthe distribution of PCE with depth after 10 days (cf. Table 2case #1) when the top 0.5 m of soil is organic-wet and thebottom 4.5 m are water-wet. Note that very high organicsaturations are achieved at the interface separating organic-and water-wet soils. Before PCE can displace water fromthe water-wet layer, the PCE entry pressure in this layermust be exceeded. This can only occur after the capillarypressure in the organic-wet layer approaches zero (high PCEsaturations). A maximum organic saturation of 85%

occurred in Fig. 5 compared with 25% in the chemicallyhomogeneous systems (cf., Fig. 3). Fig. 5 demonstrates thatorganic-wet zones can create regions of high organic liquidsaturation in physically homogeneous subsurface systems.This result is consistent with field observations, Atwater8

Fig. 5. PCE saturation distribution with depth after 10 days whenthe top 0.5 m of soil is organic-wet and the bottom 4.5 m are

water-wet.

Fig. 6. Permeability distribution employed for case #2simulations.

Fig. 7. PCE saturation distribution after 10 days for case #2 whenfsow ¼ 08.

Fig. 8. Spatial distribution offsow according to eqn (3) for case #2whenb is equal to 1 (a) and¹ 0.5 (b) and the geometric mean of

fsow is equal to 668.

Flow and entrapment of DNAPLs in chemically heterogeneous aquifer formations 125

Adva

Page 10: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

reported the presence of high DNAPL (a dielectric fluidcontaining PCBs and TCB) saturations in an organic-wetclay immediately above a water-wet silt at a hazardouswaste site in Regina, Canada.

3.2 Physically heterogeneous aquifers

This section presents results from two-dimensional simula-tions of PCE infiltration and redistribution for cases #2, #3,and #4 (cf. Table 2) having various chemical characteristics.The model domain consists of a 5 m3 10 m vertical cross-section of an initially water saturated aquifer. Nodal spacingin the vertical and horizontal directions was 0.1 m and0.5 m, respectively. No flow boundary conditions wereenforced at the top and bottom of the model domain,while hydrostatic pressure boundary conditions wereemployed at the left and right boundaries (referenced toatmospheric pressure at the domain surface). A constantinfiltration velocity of 3 cm/day of PCE was introduced atthe top center node for a period of 5 days, after which a noflow boundary condition was maintained at this node whilePCE was allowed to redistribute.

Fig. 6 shows the generated permeability distribution forcase #2. The mean intrinsic permeability, and correlationlengths in the horizontal and vertical directions for thisaquifer are given in Table 2. Fig. 7 shows the simulated

distribution of organic liquid saturation after 10 days forcase #2 when a constant value offsow equal to 08 isassumed. Note that the PCE saturation is rather symmetri-cally distributed below the injection point. Increased lateralspreading occurs at textural interfaces due to capillary bar-rier effects, even for the relatively low degrees of physicalheterogeneity present in this scenario.

Simulations were subsequently conducted to examine theeffects of coupled physical and chemical heterogeneity onthe infiltration and redistribution of the PCE for case #2.Spatial distributions offsow were first generated from theintrinsic permeability distribution according to eqn (3) withb equal to 1.0, 0.5,¹ 0.5, and¹ 1.0. As an illustration, Fig.8a,b shows the spatial distribution offsow with b equal to1.0, and¹ 0.5, respectively. In all cases, the mean value offsow was set equal to 668; the reported value of the PCEcontact angle measured through water on glass.22 Note thatlocations of higher contact angles are correlated with thecoarser textured soils whenb . 0, and with finer soils forb , 0. Values ofb closer to zero (0.5 and¹ 0.5) led todecreased variability in the contact angle distribution thanwhenb ¼ 1 or ¹ 1.

Fig. 9a–d presents the spatial distribution of organic liquidsaturation after 10 days when the contact angle distributionswere determined withb ¼ 1.0, 0.5, ¹ 0:5, and ¹ 1:0,respectively. Observe in Fig. 8a,b and Fig. 9a,c that

Fig. 9. Spatial distribution of PCE saturation after 10 days for case #2 when the contact angle distribution was determined according toeqn (3) withb ¼ 1.0 (a), 0.5 (b), ¹ 0.5 (c), and ¹ 1.0 (d), and the geometric mean offsow is equal to 668.

126 S. A. Bradfordet al.

Adva

Page 11: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

higher organic liquid saturations occur in regions havinghigher contact angles. Note that the depth of PCE infiltrationincreases and lateral spreading decreases whenb ¼ 1 incomparison with the caseb ¼ ¹ 1 (Fig. 9a,d). Recallthat, for a given contact angle, stronger capillary forcesand lower intrinsic permeability occur in finer than incoarser textured soils, which will cause the organic liquidto be more forcefully retained. In Fig. 9a,d the organic liquidis primarily retained/found in the coarser and finer texturedsoils, respectively, due to the spatial distribution of contactangles and, consequently, the mobility of the organic isgreater in Fig. 9a (b ¼ 1) than in Fig. 9d (b ¼ ¹ 1).Comparison of Fig. 9b (b ¼ 0.5) and Fig. 9c (b ¼ ¹ 0.5)reveal similar tends. In this case, however, the decreasedvariability in the contact angle distribution (cf. Fig. 8a,b)diminishes the potential capillary barrier effects that canoccur at soil chemical property interfaces.

Comparison of Figs 7, and 9a–d demonstrate the poten-tial importance of chemical heterogeneity on the migrationof organic liquids in the subsurface. In chemically hetero-geneous systems much higher organic saturations areachieved, lateral spreading is increased, and the depth oforganic liquid penetration is decreased compared with thewater-wet case. Similar to Fig. 5, this result can beexplained by capillary barrier effects; i.e., the PCE entry

pressure of the more water-wet layer is not exceeded untilthe PCE saturation in the more organic-wet layer increases.Sharp contrasts in soil texture can yield similar capillary barriereffects on organic liquid migration (e.g., Kueperet al.43).

Spatial distributions ofFo were also generated from theintrinsic permeability shown in Fig. 6 according to eqn (3)with b equal to 1 and¹ 1. In this case, the mean value ofFo

was chosen to be equal to 36.6%, based upon the previouslyemployed mean value offsow ¼ 668 and the maximumcontact angle of 1808; i.e., 66/180¼ 0.366. Fig. 10a,bshows the spatial distribution of organic liquid saturationafter 10 days whenb ¼ 1 and ¹ 1, respectively. Observethat whenb ¼ ¹ 1 (Fig. 10b) the saturation distribution isalmost identical to the strongly water-wet case (Fig. 7). Forb ¼ 1 (Fig. 10a) wettability effects are more pronouncedthan whenb ¼ ¹ 1, but still much less significant than thoseshown in Fig. 9d, where contact angles were independent ofsaturation. Similar to Fig. 4, the observed PCE saturationdistribution can be explained by considering the dependenceof the hydraulic properties on̄Seff

wmin. For a givenFo, water isretained more strongly by the finer soils than the coarsersoils. Consequently, lower values ofS̄eff

wmin (higher organicsaturation) are possible in the coarser textured soils. Hence,fractional wettability effects on the organic saturationdistribution are more apparent whenFo is positively corre-lated with intrinsic permeability (the coarser texturedmedia). In contrast to Fig. 10a,b, when wettability is inde-pendent ofS̄eff

wmin (constant contact angle) the influence onthe spatial distribution of organic liquid (Fig. 9a,d) wasmore pronounced whenb ¼ ¹ 1 than forb ¼ 1.

Fig. 11a,b shows the organic liquid distribution after 10days for cases #3 and #4, respectively, whenfsow ¼ 08.Comparison of Figs 7, and 11a,b reveals that increasingthe variance in ln(k) leads to increased lateral spreading,and a decrease in the depth of penetration of PCE as hasbeen previously reported.20,33,45 Note that higher organicsaturations occur in regions of higher intrinsic permeabilitysince finer textured soils act as a capillary barrier to organicliquid entry.

Coupled chemical and physical heterogeneity scenariossimilar to those performed for case #2 were carried out forcases #3 and #4. Fig. 12a,b shows the organic liquid dis-tribution after 10 days for cases #3 and #4, respectively,when the contact angle is perfectly correlated with theintrinsic permeability (b ¼ 1) and the mean value offsow

was again set equal to 668. Note that as the variance of thepermeability increases (cf. Fig. 11a and Fig. 12a, and Fig.11b and Fig. 12b), the influence of wettability on the organicsaturation distribution becomes less apparent. Similarresults were obtained when the contact angle was negativelycorrelated with the intrinsic permeability. This observationsuggests that spatial variations in contact angles can poten-tially be a controlling factor of organic liquid distribution insystems with lower degrees of physical heterogeneity suchas many sandy aquifer formations.37,39,67,68,74

Fig. 13 shows the organic saturation distribution after 10days for case #3 when the organic-wet fraction is perfectly

Fig. 10. Spatial distribution of PCE saturation after 10 days forcase #2 when the organic-wet fraction distribution was determinedaccording to eqn (3) withb ¼ 1 (a) and¹ 1 (b), and the geometric

mean ofFo is equal to 36.6%.

Flow and entrapment of DNAPLs in chemically heterogeneous aquifer formations 127

Adva

Page 12: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

correlated with the intrinsic permeability (b ¼ 1) and themean value ofFo is again set equal to 36.6%. Comparison ofthe organic saturation distributions for completely water-wet and fractional wettability (b ¼ 1) aquifers for cases#2 (Figs 7, and 10a) and #3 (Fig. 11a and Fig. 13) revealsan increased impact of fractional wettability on the distribu-tions with increasing physical heterogeneity. This resultoccurs due to the dependence of the fractional wettabilityhydraulic property relations on the historic minimum watersaturation. Increases in the permeability variance leads tosharper contrasts in soil texture (capillary barriers) whichresult in higher organic saturations (cf. Fig. 7, Fig. 11a, andFig. 11b). The presence of fractional wettability furtheraccentuates such capillary barrier effects due to its impacton the hydraulic property relations (i.e., decreasingkro andPc at a given saturation) as̄Seff

wmin decreases. In contrast,when ln(Fo) and ln(k) are inversely related (b ¼ ¹ 1)increasing the physical heterogeneity will not greatlyaffect S̄eff

wmin in the finer textured soils and, hence, fractionalwettability has little impact on the predicted organic satura-tion distributions.

4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

This work represents the first attempt to simulate theinfluence of wettability on organic liquid migration and

entrapment. Modifications to a multiphase flow simulatorare given to account for chemical, as well as, physicalheterogeneities. Physical heterogeneity was simulated witha spatially variable distribution of intrinsic permeabilityhaving specified statistics and correlation structure accord-ing to the turning bands method. Soil chemical heterogene-ity was assumed to alter the wettability properties of the

Fig. 11. Spatial distribution of PCE saturation after 10 days forcases #3 (a) and #4 (b), whenfsow ¼ 08.

Fig. 12. Spatial distribution of PCE saturation after 10 days forcases #3 (a) and #4 (b), respectively, when the contact angledistribution was determined according to eqn (3) withb ¼ 1

and the geometric mean offsow ¼ 668.

Fig. 13. Spatial distribution of PCE saturation after 10 days forcase #3 when the organic-wet fraction distribution was determinedaccording to eqn 3) withb ¼ 1 and the geometric mean ofFo ¼

36.6%.

128 S. A. Bradfordet al.

Adva

Page 13: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

subsurface through variations in contact angle or organic-wet mass fraction. Spatial distributions of chemical hetero-geneity were generated by correlation with the intrinsicpermeability. Capillary properties were obtained from theintrinsic permeability according to Leverett scaling. Wett-ability effects on the capillary pressure-saturation relationswere modeled by contact angle scaling or curve ‘shifting’(fractional wettability systems), according to a previouslydeveloped correlation. Wettability effects on relative per-meability relations were modeled with a Burdine model,modified to weight contributions of wetting and nonwettingfluid pore classes.11

One-dimensional simulations in physically homogeneousporous media demonstrated that as the contact angle ororganic-wet fraction increased, the maximum organic liquidsaturation increased and the depth of infiltration decreased.Wettability effects on the predicted organic saturation dis-tribution were found to be more pronounced for increasingcontact angles than for increasing organic-wet fractions(fractional wettability). This result was attributed to thedependence of the fractional wettability hydraulic proper-ties on the historic minimum water saturation. Simulationsalso demonstrated that capillary barrier effects can occur atsoil chemical property interfaces. The presence of such bar-riers can lead to dramatically higher organic liquid saturations.

Two-dimensional simulations for coupled physically andchemically heterogeneous aquifers revealed that thepresence of chemical heterogeneities can dramaticallyinfluence the predicted distribution of organic saturation inaquifer formations. Higher organic saturations, increasedlateral spreading, and decreased infiltration depth of theorganic plume were predicted when the contact angle wasnegatively correlated with the intrinsic permeability. Simi-lar effects were observed when the contact angle was posi-tively correlated with the intrinsic permeability, but to alesser extent due to decreased capillary forces and increasedpermeability of coarser textured soils. Spatial distributionsof contact angles had a greater influence on the predictedorganic saturation distribution for systems having a lowervariance in permeability, i.e., lower degrees of physicalheterogeneity. When chemical heterogeneity was repre-sented with spatial distributions of organic-wet solidfractions, the predicted organic saturation distributionswere much more similar to those for the perfectly water-wet scenarios. In general, fractional wettability effects onorganic saturation distributions were found to be morepronounced for systems which achieved lower water satura-tions; i.e., when the organic-wet fraction was positivelycorrelated with the intrinsic permeability, and for systemshaving a larger variance in permeability. As in the one-dimensional case, these observations were attributed to thedependence of the fractional wettability hydraulic proper-ties on the historic minimum water saturation.

There is presently a need to quantify the spatial distribu-tion of wettability properties in natural aquifer formations.Results presented herein indicate that knowledge of thewettability distribution may be of at least equal importance

as the intrinsic permeability distribution in some systems.The evolution of wettability as a function of saturation andconcentration history is another area which should beaddressed in future studies. Work is ongoing to test andrefine the modeling of wettability effects on hydraulic prop-erty relations. A more complete understanding of the influ-ence of wettability on entrapment and capillary behaviormay also lead to improved methods for aquifer remediationand control of organic liquid migration.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Funding for this research was provided by the Depart-ment of Energy under Grant # DE-FG07-96ER14702. Theresearch described in this article has not been subject toAgency review and no official endorsement should beinferred.

REFERENCES

1. Abriola, L. M. Modeling multiphase migration of organicchemicals in groundwater systems—A review and assess-ment.Environ. Health Perspect., 1989,83, 117–143.

2. Abriola, L. M., Rathfelder, K., Maiza, M. and Yadav, S.,VALOR code version 1.0: A PC code for simulating immis-cible contaminant transport in subsurface systems, EPRI TR-101018, Project 2879-08, Final Report, September, 1992.

3. Al-Fossail, K. and Handy, L. L. Correlation between capil-lary number and residual saturation.J. Colloid Interface Sci.,1990,134,256–263.

4. Anderson, W. G. Wettability literature survey—Part 1:Rock/oil/brine interactions and the effects of core handlingon wettability.J. Petrol. Technol., 1986,38, 1125–1144.

5. Anderson, W. G. Wettability literature survey—Part 2: Wett-ability measurement.J. Petrol. Technol., 1986, 38, 1246–1261.

6. Anderson, W. G. Wettability literature survey—Part 4:Effects of wettability on capillary pressure.J. Petrol. Tech-nol., 1987,39, 1283–1300.

7. Anderson, W. G. Wettability literature survey—Part 5: Theeffects of wettability on relative permeability.J. Petrol.Technol., 1987,39, 1453–1467.

8. Atwater, J. W. A case study of a chemical spill: Polychlori-nated biphenyls (PCBs) revisited.Water Resour. Res., 1984,20, 317–319.

9. Bellin, A., Rinaldo, A., Bosma, W. J. P., van der Zee, S. E. A.T. M. and Rubin, Y. Linear equilibrium adsorbing solutetransport in physically and chemically heterogeneousporous formations, 1. Analytical solutions.Water Resour.Res., 1993,29, 4019–4031.

10. Bosma, W. J. P., Bellin, A., van der Zee, S. E. A. T. M. andRinaldo, A. Linear equilibrium adsorbing solute transport inphysically and chemically heterogeneous porous formations,2. Numerical results.Water Resour. Res., 1993,29, 4031–4043.

11. Bradford, S. A., Abriola, L. M. and Leij, F. J. Wettabilityeffects on two- and three-fluid relative permeabilities.J.Contam. Hydrol., 1997,28, 171–191.

12. Bradford, S. A. and Leij, F. J. Wettability effects on scalingtwo- and three-fluid capillary pressure–saturation relations.Environ. Sci. Technol., 1995,29, 1446–1455.

Flow and entrapment of DNAPLs in chemically heterogeneous aquifer formations 129

Adva

Page 14: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

13. Bradford, S. A. and Leij, F. J. Fractional wettability effectson two- and three-fluid capillary pressure–saturation rela-tions. J. Contam. Hydrol., 1995,20, 89–109.

14. Bradford, S. A. and Leij, F. J. Predicting two- and three-fluidcapillary pressure–saturation relationships in fractional wett-ability media.Water Resour. Res., 1996,32, 251–260.

15. Brown, R. J. S. and Fatt, I. Measurements of fractional wett-ability of oilfield rocks by the nuclear magnetic relaxationmethod.Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Metall. Pet. Eng., 1956,207,262–264.

16. Burdine, N. T. Relative permeability calculations from pore-size distribution data.Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Metall. Pet. Eng.,1953,198, 71–77.

17. Burris, D. R. and Antworth, C. P.In situ modification of anaquifer material by a cationic surfactant to enhance retarda-tion of organic contaminants.J. Contam. Hydrol., 1992,10,325–337.

18. Chatzis, I., Morrow, N. R. and Lim, H. T. Magnitude anddetailed structure of residual oil saturation.Soc. Petrol. Eng.J., 1983,23, 311–326.

19. Chilingar, G. V. and Yen, T. F. Some notes on wettabilityand relative permeabilities of carbonate reservoir rocks, II.Energy Sources, 1983,7, 67–75.

20. Dekker, T. J. and Abriola, L. M., The influence of field-scaleheterogeneity on the infiltration and entrapment of densenonaqueous phase liquids in saturated formations.J.Contam. Hydrol., submitted.

21. Dekker, L. W. and Ritsema, C. J. How water moves in awater repellent sandy soil, 1, potential and actual water repel-lency. Water Resour. Res., 1994,30, 2507–2519.

22. Demond, A. H., Capillarity in two-phase liquid flow oforganic contaminants in groundwater. Ph.D. thesis. StanfordUniversity, Stanford, CA, 211 pp., 1988.

23. Demond, A. H., Desai, F. N. and Hayes, K. F. Effect ofcationic surfactants on organic liquid–water capillary pres-sure–saturation relationships.Water Resour. Res., 1994,30,333–342.

24. Demond, A. H., Rathfelder, K. and Abriola, L. M. Simulationof organic liquid flow in porous media using estimated andmeasured transport properties.J. Contam. Hydrol., 1996,22,223–240.

25. Demond, A. H. and Roberts, P. V. Effect of interfacial forceson two-phase capillary pressure–saturation relationships.Water Resour. Res., 1991,27, 423–437.

26. Donaldson, E. C. and Dean, G. W.,Two- and Three-phaseRelative Permeability Studies. U.S. Bureau of Mines, Report#6826, Washington, DC, 1966.

27. Donaldson, E. C. and Thomas, R. D., Microscopic observa-tions of oil displacement in water-wet and oil-wet systems,SPE paper # 3555, SPE Annual Meetings, New Orleans, LA,1971.

28. Donaldson, E. C., Thomas, R. D. and Lorenz, P. B. Wett-ability determination and its effect on recovery efficiency.Soc. Petrol. Eng. J., 1969,9, 13–20.

29. Duff, I. S., MA28—A set of fortran subroutines for sparseunsymmetric linear equations, Report No. AERE-R.8730,AERE Harwell Laboratories, Oxford, UK, 1979.

30. Duff, I. S., Enhancements to the MA32 package for solvingsparse unsymmetric equations, Report No. AERE-R.11009,AERE Harwell Laboratories, Oxford, UK, 1989.

31. Dumore, J. M. and Schols, R. S. Drainage capillary-pressurefunctions and the influence of connate water.Soc. Petrol.Eng. J., 1974,14, 437–444.

32. Essaid, H. I., Herkelrath, W. N. and Hess, K. M. Simulationof fluid distributions observed at a crude oil spill site incor-porating hysteresis, oil entrapment, and spatial variability ofhydraulic properties.Water Resour. Res., 1993, 29, 1753–1770.

33. Essaid, H. I. and Hess, K. M. Monte Carlo simulations ofmultiphase flow incorporating spatial variability of hydraulicproperties.Ground Water, 1993,31, 123–134.

34. Garabedian, S. P., LeBlanc, D. R., Gelhar, L. W. and Celia,M. A. Large-scale natural gradient tracer test in sand andgravel, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 2, Analysis of spatialmoments for a nonreactive tracer.Water Resour. Res.,1991,27, 911–924.

35. Hayworth, J. S. and Burris, D. R. Nonionic surfactant-enhanced solubilization and recovery of organic contami-nants from within cationic surfactant-enhanced sorbentzones. 1. Experiments.Environ. Sci. Technol., 1997, 31,1277–1283.

36. Hayworth, J. S. and Burris, D. R. Nonionic surfactant-enhanced solubilization and recovery of organic contami-nants from within cationic surfactant-enhanced sorbentzones. 2. Numerical Simulations.Environ. Sci. Technol.,1997,31, 1284–1289.

37. Hess, K. M., Wolf, S. H. and Celia, M. A. Large-scale naturalgradient tracer test in sand and gravel, Cape Cod,Massachusetts. 3. Hydraulic conductivity variability and cal-culated macrodispersivities.Water Resour. Res., 1992, 28,2011–2027.

38. Hoag, G. E. and Marley, M. C. Gasoline residual saturationin unsaturated uniform aquifer materials.J. Environ. Eng.,1986,112,586–604.

39. Jussel, P., Stauffer, F. and Dracos, T. Transport modeling inheterogeneous aquifers: 1. Statistical description and numer-ical generation of gravel deposits.Water Resour. Res., 1994,30, 1803–1817.

40. Kabala, Z. J. and Sposito, G. A stochastic model of reactivesolute transport with time-varying velocity in a heteroge-neous aquifer.Water Resour. Res., 1991,27, 341–350.

41. Kia, S. F. and Abdul, A. S. Retention of diesel fuel in aquifermaterial.ASCE J. Hydrol. Eng., 1990,116,881–894.

42. Kool, J. B. and Parker, J. C. Development and evaluation ofclosed-form expressions for hysteretic soil hydraulic proper-ties. Water Resour. Res., 1987,23, 105–114.

43. Kueper, B. H., Abbott, W. and Farquhar, G. Experimentalobservations of multiphase flow in heterogeneous porousmedia.J. Contam. Hydrol., 1989,5, 83–95.

44. Kueper, B. H. and Frind, E. O. Two-phase flow in hetero-geneous porous media 1. Model development.Water Resour.Res., 1991,27, 1049–1057.

45. Kueper, B. H. and Frind, E. O. Two-phase flow in hetero-geneous porous media 2. Model application.Water Resour.Res., 1991,27, 1059–1070.

46. Kueper, B. H. and Gerhard, J. I. Variability of point sourceinfiltration rates for two-phase flow in heterogeneous porousmedia.Water Resour. Res., 1995,31, 2971–2980.

47. Kueper, B. H., Redman, D., Starr, R. C., Reitsma, S. andMah, M. A field experiment to study the behavior of tetra-chloroethylene below the water table: Spatial distribution ofresidual and pooled DNAPL.Ground Water, 1993,31, 756–766.

48. Land, C. S. Calculation of imbibition relative permeabilityfor two- and three-phase flow from rock properties.Soc.Petrol. Eng. J., 1968,8, 149–156.

49. Lenhard, R. J. and Parker, J. C. A model for hystereticconstitutive relations governing multiphase flow 2. Perme-ability–saturation relations.Water Resour. Res., 1987, 23,2197–2206.

50. Leverett, M. C. Capillary behavior in porous solids.Trans.Am. Inst. Min. Metall. Pet. Eng., 1941,142,152–169.

51. Lorenz, P. B., Donaldson, E. C. and Thomas, R. D., Use ofcentrifugal measurements of wettability to predict oil recov-ery, Report 7873, USBM, Barlesville Energy TechnologyCenter, 1974.

130 S. A. Bradfordet al.

Adva

Page 15: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

52. McCaffery, F. G. and Bennion, D. W. The effect of wett-ability on two-phase relative permeabilities.J. Can. Petrol.Technol., 1974,13, 42–53.

53. Miralles-Wilhelm, F. and Gelhar, L. W. Stochastic analysisof sorption macrokinetics in heterogeneous aquifers.WaterResour. Res., 1996,32, 1541–1549.

54. Morrow, N. R. The effects of surface roughness on contactangle with special reference to petroleum recovery.J. Can.Petrol. Technol., 1975,14, 42–53.

55. Morrow, N. R. Capillary pressure correlations for uniformlywetted porous media.J. Can. Petrol. Technol., 1976,15,49–69.

56. Morrow, N. R. Wettability and its effect on oil recovery.J.Petrol. Technol., 1990,42, 1476–1484.

57. Morrow, N. R. and Mungan, N., Wettability and Capillarityin Porous Media, Report RR-7, Petroleum ReservoirResearch Inst., Calgary, Canada, January, 1971.

58. Owens, W. W. and Archer, D. L. The effect of rock wett-ability on oil–water relative permeability relationships.J.Petrol. Technol., 1971,23, 873–878.

59. Parker, J. C. and Lenhard, R. J. A model for hysteretic con-stitutive relations governing multiphase flow. 1. Saturation–pressure relations.Water Resour. Res., 1987,23,2187–2196.

60. Poulsen, M. and Kueper, B. H. A field experiment to studythe behavior of tetrachloroethylene in unsaturated porousmedia.Environ. Sci. Technol., 1992,26, 889–895.

61. Powers, S. E., Dissolution of nonaqueous phase liquids insaturated subsurface systems. Doctoral Thesis, The Univer-sity of Michigan, 1992.

62. Powers, S. E. and Tamblin, M. E. Wettability of porousmedia after exposure to synthetic gasolines.J. Contam.Hydrol., 1995,19, 105–125.

63. Rathfelder, K. and Abriola, L. M. Mass conservative numer-ical solutions of the head-based Richards equation.WaterResour. Res., 1994,30, 2579–2586.

64. Rathfelder, K. and Abriola, L. M., On the influence of capillarityin the modeling of organic liquid redistribution in two-phasesystems.Advances in Water Resources, 1988,21, 159–170.

65. Roberts, P. V., Goltz, M. N. and Mackay, D. M. A naturalgradient experiment on solute transport in a sand aquifer. 3.Retardation estimates and mass balances for organic solutes.Water Resour. Res., 1986,22, 2047–2058.

66. Salathiel, R. A. Oil recovery by surface film drainage inmixed-wettability rocks.J. Petrol. Technol., 1973, 255,1212–1224.

67. Smith, L. Spatial variability of flow parameters in a stratifiedsand.Mathematical Geology, 1981,13, 1–21.

68. Sudicky, E. A. A natural gradient experiment on solute trans-port in a sand aquifer: Spatial variability of hydraulic con-ductivity and its role in the dispersion process.Water Resour.Res., 1986,22, 2069–2082.

69. Tompson, A. F. B., Ababou, R. and Gelhar, L. W. Imple-mentation of the three-dimensional turning bands randomfield generator.Water Resour. Res., 1989,25, 2227–2243.

70. Treiber, L. E., Archer, D. L. and Owens, W. W. Laboratoryevaluation of the wettability of fifty-five oil producing reser-voirs. Soc. Petrol. Eng. J., 1972,12, 531.

71. van Geel, P. J. and Sykes, J. F. Laboratory and model simu-lations of a LNAPL spill in a variably-saturated sand, 2.Comparison of laboratory and model results.J. Contam.Hydrol., 1994,17, 27–53.

72. van Genuchten, M. Th. A closed form equation for predictingthe hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.Soil Sci. Soc.Am. J., 1980,44, 892–898.

73. Wilson, J. L., Conrad, S. H., Mason, W. R., Peplinski, W. andHagan, E., Laboratory investigation of residual liquidorganics from spills, leaks and the disposal of hazardouswastes in groundwater, EPA/600/6-90/004, 1990.

74. Woodbury, A. D. and Sudicky, E. A. The geostatistical char-acteristics of the Borden aquifer.Water Resour. Res., 1991,27, 533–546.

75. Xu, S. and Boyd, S. A. Cationic surfactant sorption to avermiculitic subsoil via hydrophobic bonding.Environ. Sci.Technol., 1995,29, 312–320.

76. Yang, J., Zhang, R. and Wu, J. Stochastic analysis of adsorb-ing solute transport in two-dimensional unsaturated soils.Water Resour. Res., 1996,32, 2747–2756.

APPENDIX A

It is anticipated that soil texture will have an influence onresidual saturations. Following Dekker and Abriola,20 toaccount for this effect, the following regression relation-ships were employed herein:

Srw ¼ ¹ 0:62329¹ 0:06404 log(k) r2 ¼ 0:997 (A1)

Sro ¼ ¹ 0:52465¹ 0:06234 log(k) r2 ¼ 0:937 (A2)

These relations were developed from consideration of pub-lished data for measured residuals in unconsolidatedmedia.3,38,41,61eqn (A1) and eqn (A1) indicate a negativecorrelation between residual saturation and the log ofpermeability. It is assumed herein that the values ofSrw

andSro calculated from eqn (A2) and eqn (A2) correspondto the residual saturations for perfectly water-wet porousmedia. Wettability effects on residual saturations are dis-cussed below.

Researchers in the petroleum industry have investigatedthe effects of wettability on residual saturations.51,55,57

Results of Morrow and Mungan57 and Morrow55 suggestthat the residual wetting fluid saturation decreases whenfsow increases from 08 to 908. The dependence of residualnonwetting fluid saturation on contact angle is not as clear.Morrow55 found that residual nonwetting fluid saturationincreased whenfsow increases from 08 to 908, whereasresults from Lorenzet al.51 suggest the opposite trend. Itis generally accepted, however, thatSro is lowest in mediawith neutral wettability.56 For this work the followingexpressions are employed to describe wettability effectson the residual water saturation:

Sprw

Srw¼ 1:0¹ 0:6(

y

yn)

y

yn# 0:5 (A3)

Sprw

Srw¼ 1:0¹ 0:6(1¹

y

yn)

y

yn. 0:5 (A4)

whereS*rw is the residual water saturation that now accountsfor wettability effects, andyn is a normalizing factor for theselected wettability parameter. The value ofyn is equal to1808 wheny ¼ fsow, and equal to 1 wheny ¼ Fo. Note thatSrw is obtained from eqn (A1). Analogous expressions tothat given in eqns (A3) and (A4) were employed to describewettability effects onSro (S*ro). Eqns (A3) and (A4) areroughly based on the data presented by Morrow.55

Flow and entrapment of DNAPLs in chemically heterogeneous aquifer formations 131

Adva

Page 16: Flow and entrapment of dense nonaqueous phase liquids in ...€¦ · Scott A. Bradford*, Linda M. Abriola & Klaus M. Rathfelder University of Michigan, Department of Civil and Environmental

To account for hysteretic wettability effects on thehydraulic property relations it is necessary to distinguishbetween ‘immobile’ and ‘entrapped’ residual saturations.An ‘immobile’ wetting fluid residual occurs due to the pre-sence of thin films coating solid surfaces, whereas‘entrapped’ nonwetting fluid residual occurs in largerportions of the pore space as wetting fluid invades due tocapillary instabilities. Immobile and entrapped residualsaturations will be denoted below with subscripts ‘i’ and‘t’, respectively. It is assumed herein that only water isimmobile whenfsow , 908 and, hence,Swi ¼ S*rw and Soi

¼ 0. Forfsow. 908, only the organic liquid is assumed to beimmobile, but in this caseSoi also depends on the portion ofthe pore space that has been exposed to organic liquid.Hence, it is assumed thatSoi ¼ S*roSomax (Somax is the historicmaximum organic saturation), whileSwi ¼ 0. For fractionalwettability mediaS*rw andS*ro are the sum of residual wettingand nonwetting water and organic saturations, respectively.Hence, it is assumed thatSwi ¼ (1 ¹ Fo) 3 S*rw andSoi ¼ Fo

3 S*ro 3 Somax/(1 ¹ Swi). A discussion of the entrappedresidual saturations is given below.

Throughout this paper the hydraulic property relationswere written in terms of effective and apparent saturations.Effective saturation reflects the ‘mobile’ liquid saturation,whereas apparent saturation reflects the ‘mobileþ

entrapped’ liquid saturation. Effective and apparent satura-tions are defined herein as:

S̄appw ¼

Sw ¹ Swi

1¹ Swi ¹ Soiþ

Sot

1¹ Swi ¹ Soi¹

Swt

1¹ Swi ¹ Soi

¼ S̄effw þ S̄eff

ot ¹ S̄effwt ðA5Þ

S̄appo ¼

So ¹ Soi

1¹ Swi ¹ Soiþ

Swt

1¹ Swi ¹ Soi¹

Sot

1¹ Swi ¹ Soi

¼ S̄effo þ S̄eff

wt ¹ S̄effot ðA6Þ

where S̄appw and S̄app

o are the apparent water and organicsaturation, respectively,̄Seff

w and S̄effo are the effective

mobile water and organic saturation, respectively,S̄effwt and

S̄effot are the effective entrapped water and organic satura-

tion, respectively. The determination ofS̄effwt and S̄eff

ot isdiscussed below.

When the porous medium is water-wet (fsow , 908), themaximum effective entrapped organic saturation(S̄eff

mot) isdetermined with the procedure of Land48 as

S̄effmot ¼

1¹ S̄effwmin

1þ C 1¹ S̄effwmin

� � (A7)

whereS̄effwmin is the historic minimum effective water satura-

tion andC is given as:

C¼1¹ Swi

Spro

¹ 1 (A8)

The effective entrapped organic liquid saturation(S̄effot ) as a

function of effective water saturation is subsequently deter-mined by linear interpolation as:59

S̄effot ¼ S̄eff

motS̄eff

w ¹ S̄effwmin

1¹ S̄effwmin ¹ S̄eff

mot

!(A9)

Note that S̄effot ¼ 0 when S̄eff

w ¼ S̄effwmin and S̄eff

ot ¼ S̄effmot when

S̄effw ¼ 1¹ S̄eff

mot. For a porous medium that is organic-wet(fsow . 908), eqn (A7), eqn (A8), and eqn (A9) can alsobe used to determine the effective entrapped water satura-tion (S̄eff

wt ) by reversing the roles of water and the organicliquid. For a fractional wettability medium both entrappedorganic and water occur due to the presence of water- andorganic-wet solids, respectively. In this case, eqn (A7) andeqn (A9) are again used to determineS̄eff

mot andS̄effot , respec-

tively, but this timeS*ro in eqn (A8) is replaced by (1¹ Fo)3 S* ro since S*ro is now the sum of residual wetting andnonwetting organic saturation. A similar procedure isemployed to obtain̄Seff

mwt and S̄effwt after writing eqns (A7),

(A8) and (A9) in terms of the organic as the wetting fluid;this time S*ro and Siw are replaced byFo 3 S*rw and Sio,respectively.

132 S. A. Bradfordet al.

Adva