Abstract
This paper focuses on the application of a particle tracking approach that incorporates temporal moment analysis to dispersivity estimation linked with an inverse analysis under a limited number of observation points. Laboratory solute displacement experiments in saturated homogeneous porous media are conducted to observe a time series of NaCl concentrations at four observation points in 80-cm long, horizontally placed flow field under a steady state and unidirectional flow condition. Breakthrough data measured at the same two coordinates as the source along a flow direction permit the proper estimation of the longitudinal dispersivity without the evaluation of concentration variation at a control plane perpendicular to the flow direction. Breakthrough data also are utilized to estimate transport and source parameters such as transverse dispersivity, retardation factor and source magnitude using genetic algorithm. The good agreement between the measured concentration variation and the recovered breakthrough curves corresponding to the identified set of values suggests that a combined use of temporal moment and inverse analysis can provide an additional useful means of parameter estimation for transport in homogeneous porous media.
