Legacies from three former manufactured-gas plants: impacts on groundwater quality

Groundwater contamination due to accidental releases of mono- and polycyclic aromatic compounds (MAHs and PAHs) from decommissioned manufactured-gas plants is an ongoing and litigious problem. The MAHs and PAHs are derived from coal tar, which was a by-product of the gas-manufacturing process. While originally designed to contain coal tar, the manufactured-gas plant structures that remain today have often degraded over time and are not completely leak-proof. Over a period of many years, subsurface water has seeped into and out of the structures, resulting in groundwater contamination. This was particularly true once the tops of the structures were removed. In this study, process-based simulations were conducted to estimate the groundwater-quality impacts of accidental releases of dissolved naphthalene (C₁₀H₈) from the sites of three former manufactured-gas plants. The results from one-dimensional, transient, unsaturated, near-surface fluid-flow and solute-transport simulations served as input to three-dimensional saturated subsurface fluid-flow and solute-transport simulations. The simulation results and sensitivity analysis reported here indicate that accidental releases of naphthalene had significant, negative impacts on groundwater quality at each of the three sites. Electronic Publication     

非均质介质中地下水流动与溶质运移模拟——问题与挑战

对大空间尺度和长时间跨度的地下水流动及污染物质运移进行预测的需求, 使水文地质研究面临异乎寻常的挑战.这些需求来自于对核废料地质储放方法的安全性评价、地下水污染状况评价及其治理方案的选择.流动系统的非均质性是地下水流动及物质运移模拟中最主要的困难之一, 这种困难来自对非均质系统进行特征描述(通过原位观测实现)、概念化及模拟.评述了非均质介质中流动运移模拟的一些重要问题与挑战, 讨论了解决的途径.讨论的主题包括: 动力流动的沟道化, 示踪剂穿透曲线, 裂隙岩石中流体流动的多尺度, 观测的不同尺度, 模拟、预测与非均质性以及系统特征描述和预测性模拟的分析.      

Site effects at Euroseistest—I. Determination of the valley structure and confrontation of observations with 1D analysis

This paper describes the process of construction of the 2D model of Volvi's geological structure and results of empirical and theoretical approaches to the evaluation of site response at Euroseistest. The construction of the 2D model is based on a re-interpretation of the available geophysical and geotechnical data in an effort to improve the definition of the subsoil structure at Euroseistest in terms of the most important parameters needed to model site response. The results of this re-interpretation are compared with a previous published 2D model of the same alluvial valley. Different analysis of the measurements and different criteria in the synthesis of data have led to a different model, even if both studies had access to the same field measurements. This underscores the fact that a model results of an interpretation and is not uniquely determined by the data, no matter how detailed they are. The well known subsoil structure opened the possibility to correlate the geometry and the dynamic properties of the 2D model with the results of site response determined from a detailed analysis of two events in frequency and time domains and 1D numerical modeling. The study of site response shows the important effect of the lateral variations on the ground motion and suggests that the contribution of locally generated surface waves to the resonant peak may be important. In the case of Volvi's graben, the limitations of the 1D approximation to simulate ground motion under complex soil conditions in both frequency and time domains are also shown. This paper lays the ground for a companion article dealing with 2D site effects in this basin.     

Analysis of the positive ionospheric response to a moderate geomagnetic storm using a global numerical model

Current theories of F-layer storms are discussed using numerical simulations with the Upper Atmosphere Model, a global self-consistent, time dependent numerical model of the thermosphere-ionosphere-plasmasphere-magnetosphere system including electrodynamical coupling effects. A case study of a moderate geomagnetic storm at low solar activity during the northern winter solstice exemplifies the complex storm phenomena. The study focuses on positive ionospheric storm effects in relation to thermospheric disturbances in general and thermospheric composition changes in particular. It investigates the dynamical effects of both neutral meridional winds and electric fields caused by the disturbance dynamo effect. The penetration of short-time electric fields of magnetospheric origin during storm intensification phases is shown for the first time in this model study. Comparisons of the calculated thermospheric composition changes with satellite observations of AE-C and ESRO-4 during storm time show a good agreement. The empirical MSISE90 model, however, is less consistent with the simulations. It does not show the equatorward propagation of the disturbances and predicts that they have a gentler latitudinal gradient. Both theoretical and experimental data reveal that although the ratio of [O]/[N₂] at high latitudes decreases significantly during the magnetic storm compared with the quiet time level, at mid to low latitudes it does not increase (at fixed altitudes) above the quiet reference level. Meanwhile, the ionospheric storm is positive there. We conclude that the positive phase of the ionospheric storm is mainly due to uplifting of ionospheric F2-region plasma at mid latitudes and its equatorward movement at low latitudes along geomagnetic field lines caused by large-scale neutral wind circulation and the passage of travelling atmospheric disturbances (TADs). The calculated zonal electric field disturbances also help to create the positive ionospheric disturbances both at middle and low latitudes. Minor contributions arise from the general density enhancement of all constituents during geomagnetic storms, which favours ion production processes above ion losses at fixed height under day-light conditions.     

Study of elastic wave propagation in two-phase anisotropic media by numerical modeling of pseudospectral method

When there exists anisotropy in underground media, elastic parameters of the observed coordinate possibly do not coincide with that of the natural coordinate. According to the theory that the density of potential energy, dissipating energy is independent of the coordinate, the relationship of elastic parameters between two coordinates is derived for two-phase anisotropic media. Then, pseudospectral method to solve wave equations of two-phase anisotropic media is derived. At last, we use this method to simulate wave propagation in two-phase anisotropic media, four types of waves are observed in the snapshots, i.e., fast P wave and slow P wave, fast S wave and slow S wave. Shear wave splitting, SV wave cusps and elastic wave reflection and transmission are also observed.     

地质雷达正演中的频散压制和吸收边界改进方法

从麦克斯韦方程组出发,建立了地质雷达的时域有限差分法（ＦＤＴＤ）数学模型,导出了理想 散关系和超级吸收边界条件。理想频散关系 考虑了ＦＤＴＤ法的收敛性和稳定性,也考虑了高频电磁波在Ｙｅｅ氏网格中的传播特点;超吸收边界条件则用磁场分量来提高电场分量精度。数值试验表明,理想频散关系能真实地反映雷达波在地下介质中的传播规律,超吸收边界条件能有效减小截断边界的伪反射,提高正演精度。将之应用于实际计算,取得     

非均质土壤饱和稳定流中盐分运移的传递函数模拟

对室内人工构造的两种非均质土柱,以传递函数模型作为模拟手段,研究了稳定流场中饱和非均质土壤盐分优先运移的随机特征。首先计算了模型参数μ和σ2,获得了氯离子在非均质土壤中迁移时间的概率密度函数,然后应用传递函数模型对土柱中氯离子的出流浓度动态进行了随机模拟,并对非均质土壤中氯离子的均值和中值迁移时间及相应的运移体积与可动体积进行了分析和讨论,还依据质量守衡原理获得了土壤溶液中氯离子平均驻留浓度的变化。     

数字高程模型信息提取与数字水文模型研究进展

回顾了数字高程模型(DEM)数据的信息提取方法,阐述了由DEM提取的信息在水文水资源领域应用的现状,探讨了数字模型在水文科学中的作用和数字水文在数字地球所处的地位及应用前景。     

工程地震勘探数值模拟研究

用傅氏变换法求解波动方程,对工程地震勘探进行了数值模拟计算,并研究了该算法的频散特性及其稳定性。     

Object and Pixel-Based Reservoir Modeling of a Braided Fluvial Reservoir

To assess differences between object and pixel-based reservoir modeling techniques, ten realizations of a UK Continental Shelf braided fluvial reservoir were produced using Boolean Simulation (BS) and Sequential Indicator Simulation (SIS). Various sensitivities associated with geological input data as well as with technique-specific modeling parameters were analyzed for both techniques. The resulting realizations from the object-based and pixel-based modeling efforts were assessed by visual inspection and by evaluation of the values and ranges of the single-phase effective permeability tensors, obtained through upscaling. The BS method performed well for the modeling of two types of fluvial channels, yielding well-confined channels, but failed to represent the complex interaction of these with sheetflood and other deposits present in the reservoir. SIS gave less confined channels and had great difficulty in representing the large-scale geometries of one type of channel while maintaining its appropriate proportions. Adding an SIS background to the Boolean channels, as opposed to a Boolean background, resulted in an improved distribution of sheetflood bodies. The permeability results indicated that the SIS method yielded models with much higher horizontal permeability values (20–100%) and lower horizontal anisotropy than the BS versions. By widening the channel distribution and increasing the range of azimuths, however, the BS-produced models gave results approaching the SIS behavior. For this reservoir, we chose to combine the two methods by using object-based channels and a pixel-based heterogeneous background, resulting in moderate permeability and anisotropy levels.