Carbon Tetrachloride Flow Behavior in Unsaturated Hanford Caliche Material: An Investigation of Residual Nonaqueous Phase Liquids

To obtain data that can be used to study the development of a residual NAPL saturation and to test corresponding models, a detailed transient experiment was conducted in a 170-cm long by 90-cm high by 5.5-cm wide flow cell. Fluid saturation measurements were obtained with a dual-energy gamma radiation system. The experimental conditions reflected those at the Hanford Site in Washington State, where an estimated 363-580 m3 of carbon tetrachloride was disposed to the subsurface. A key subsurface feature at the Hanford Site is a sloped Plio-Pleistocene caliche layer, which was reproduced in the experiment as a sloped lens in a medium-grained, uniform, sand matrix. The caliche contains considerable amounts of calcium carbonate and may have fluid wettability properties other than strongly water wet. A total of 800 ml of carbon tetrachloride was injected in the experimental domain at a rate of 0.5 ml min-1 from a small source area located at the surface. After apparent steady-state conditions were obtained with respect to carbon tetrachloride redistribution (i.e., the formation of residual DNAPL), saturation measurements indicate that all of the DNAPL that initially moved into the caliche, remained in this layer. This experimental result could not be reproduced with numerical multifluid flow simulations based on conventional constitutive relations between relative permeability, saturation, and fluid pressures. Water was subsequently applied to the surface at a constant rate over the full length of the caliche layer to study carbon tetrachloride displacement as a result of changing water saturations. Results show that as a result of this action, 29% of the DNAPL was removed from the caliche. However, the majority of the fluid remained in the caliche entrapped by water. Simulations with the multifluid flow simulator show that the current constitutive theory for relative permeability, saturation and capillary pressure does not describe displacement physics properly