HR: 09:00h
AN: H11H-05    [Abstracts]
TI: K distributions in variably saturated anisotropic media
AU: * Hunt, A g
EM: allen.hunt@wright.edu
AF: wright state university, 3640 colonel glenn highway, dayton, oh 45435 United States
AU: blank, l a
EM: lablanko@hotmail.com
AF: wright state university, 3640 colonel glenn highway, dayton, oh 45435 United States
AU: skinner, t e
EM: thomas.skinner@wright.edu
AF: wright state university, 3640 colonel glenn highway, dayton, oh 45435 United States
AB: Previously the correlation length from continuum percolation theory was used to diagnose a cross-over in conduction from 1D to 3D with increasing scale in anisotropic fracture networks. That calculation yielded an expected hydraulic conductivity value, K, which increased with scale in accord with field data from a carbonate aquifer in Wisconsin. The present calculations are based on the cluster statistics of percolation. The first step is to put these statistics into a form, which is independent of dimension (in terms of cluster lengths rather than volume, and which employs a sharp cut-off rather than an exponential form). The second step relates the bond (or volume) fraction, p, to an arbitrary hydraulic resistance and the critical value of p to the critical resistance value. Applications of the calculation will be to the US DOE Hanford site, which will first be approximated as composed of two types of soil, one of high fine content and the other of low fine content. As saturation is reduced (if the matric potential is assumed equal in these two soil types) K of the fine-textured medium will exceed that of the coarse-textured portion, allowing the possibility of a saturation-dependent anisotropy ratio. The present calculations also give a spatial dependence of the anisotropy, making it possible to predict at what (large) scale such anisotropy should disappear.
DE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology
DE: 1875 Vadose zone
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005