EarthRef.org Reference Database (ERR)
Development and Maintenance by the EarthRef.org Database Team

Detailed Reference Information
Keller et al. 2004
Keller, A.A., Sirivithayapakorn, S. and Chrysikopoulos, C.V. (2004). Early breakthrough of colloids and bacteriophage MS2 in a water-saturated sand column. Water Resources Research 40: doi: 10.1029/2003WR002676. issn: 0043-1397.

We conducted column-scale experiments to observe the effect of transport velocity and colloid size on early breakthrough of free moving colloids, to relate previous observations at the pore scale to a larger scale. The colloids used in these experiments were bacteriophage MS2 (0.025 ¿m), and 0.05- and 3-¿m spherical polystyrene beads, and were compared with a conservative nonsorbing tracer (KCl). The results show that early breakthrough of colloids increases with colloid size and water velocity, compared with the tracer. These results are in line with our previous observations at the pore scale that indicated that larger colloids are restricted by the size exclusion effect from sampling all paths, and therefore they tend to disperse less and move in the faster streamlines, if they are not filtered out. The measured macroscopic dispersion coefficient decreases with colloid size due to the preferential flow paths, as observed at the pore scale. Dispersivity, typically considered only a property of the medium, is in this case also a function of colloid size, in particular at low Peclet numbers due to the size exclusion effect. Other parameters for colloid transport, such as collector efficiency and colloid filtration rates, were also estimated from the experimental breakthrough curve using a numerical fitting routine. In general, we found that the estimated filtration parameters follow the clean bed filtration model, although with a lower filtration efficiency overall.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Hydrology, Groundwater transport, Hydrology, Groundwater hydrology, Hydrology, Groundwater quality, colloid, saturated flow, size exclusion, Peclet number, dispersion, dispersivity
Journal
Water Resources Research
http://www.agu.org/wrr/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
2000 Florida Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009-1277
USA
1-202-462-6900
1-202-328-0566
service@agu.org
Click to clear formClick to return to previous pageClick to submit