Volume 47 (2003) Pages 313-318
Knowledge of DNAPL fingering phenomena in water-saturated porous media, which is not well investigated, is expected to be useful to get more insights on the contaminant transport behaviors. Laboratory experiments on trichloroethylene (TCE) fingering behaviors in saturated uniform glass sphere porous media were carried out. Two different approaches were adopted in interpreting the experimental results. The effective porosity (neD) and modification factor (kD) varied in the ranges 4.0 × 10-2 to 5.0 × 10-2 and 2.0 × 10-4 to 5.0 × 10-2 respectively in these experiments. A correlation between diameter ratio (δe) and Reynolds number (Re) for TCE fingers has been established. The neD, values for three different glass sphere sizes were almost the same while the values of kD function increased with increasing glass sphere size. The diameter ratio decreased as finger Reynolds number increased.