Analyses of solute transport using streamline simulation and semi-analytical solutions

In this article, we present a two-dimentional (2D) solute transport model using streamline simulation and semi-analytical solutions of one-dimensional (1D) transport equation. We validated the accuracy of the developed model by comparing three simulation results of contaminant transport using an analytical, a semi-analytical, and an upwind finite-difference solution of 1D transport equation. We also show how to apply the developed model to simulate solute transport with complex boundary conditions, such as the first-order degraded source condition and the Cauchy boundary condition. For an advection-dominant flow, we can clearly see the differences of plume spreads between the streamline simulation models with the semi-analytical solution and the numerical solution. From the comparison of computing time, the streamline simulation using the semi-analytical solution is 10-200 times faster than the streamline simulation using the numerical solution. If we would use a semi-analytical solution instead of a numerical solution in case no analytical solution is available, we could obtain faster and more accurate simulation results free from numerical dispersion.