[Fractal characteristics of capillary finger flow for NAPLs infiltrated in porous media].

Non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) like petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents have resulted in contamination of soils and ground water, which aroused widespread concern. It's quite important to delineate pollution area for remediation according to different soil types with pollutants properties in consideration. In this paper, a two-dimension visual sand box apparatus was constructed, with four typical NAPLs selected for infiltration experiments conducted in initially dry porous media. The main driving force was identified and fingering patterns were compared. The fractal dimension was used to give quantitative description. The present work indicates that the main driving force was capillary forces and the mechanism was the capillary fingering. The fingers varied from skeletal patterns to fleshy patterns and the infiltration area increased when the capillary number and the bond number decreased for NAPLs with the same level of viscosity. The high viscous force resulted in larger finger width and infiltration area. The same change between fluids happened in finer media. Fractal dimensions were positively correlated with the finger width and infiltration area, which is helpful in the pollution area characterization.

[Influence of image process on fractal morphology characterization of NAPLs vertical fingering flow].

Dyes are frequently used to visualize fingering flow pathways, where the image process has an important role in the result analysis. The theory of fractal geometry is applied to give quantitative description of the stain patterns via image analysis, which is helpful for finger characterization and prediction. This description typically involves two parameters, a mass fractal dimension (D(m)) relative to the area, and a surface fractal dimension (D(s)) relative to the perimeter. This work detailed analyzes the influence of various choices during the thresholding step that transformed the origin color images to binary ones which are needed in the fractal analysis. One hundred and thirty images were obtained from laboratory two-dimension sand box infiltration experiments of four dyed non-aqueous phase liquids. Detailed comparisons of D(m) and D(s) were made respectively, considering a set of threshold algorithms and the filling of lakes. Results indicate that adjustments of the saturation threshold influence are less on both D(m) and D(s) in the laboratory experiments. The brightness threshold adjustments decrease the D(m) by 0.02 and increase the D(s) by 0.05. Filling lakes influence the D(m) less while the D(s) decrease by 0.10. Therefore the D(m) was recommended for further analysis to avoid subjective choices' influence in the image process.

[Factors affecting benzene diffusion from contaminated soils to the atmosphere and flux characteristics].

The influencing factors of benzene diffusion fluxes from sand and black soil to atmosphere were investigated using a flux chamber (30.0 cm x 17.5 cm x 29.0 cm). In this study, the benzene diffusion fluxes were estimated by measuring the benzene concentrations both in the headspace of the chamber and in the soils of different layers. The results indicated that the soil water content played an important role in benzene diffusion fluxes. The diffusion flux showed positive correlation with the initial benzene concentration and the benzene dissolution concentration for both soil types. The changes of air flow rate from 300 to 900 mL x min(-1) and temperature from 20 degrees C to 40 degrees C resulted in increases of the benzene diffusion flux. Our study of benzene diffusion fluxes from contaminated soils will be beneficial for the predicting model, and emergency management and precautions.