Upscaling and Inverse Modeling of Groundwater Flow and Mass ...

Advances in Water Resources, 34(2011) 478-489.
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Transport Upscaling Using
Multi-Rate Mass Transfer in
Three-Dimensional Highly
Heterogeneous Media
Abstract
A methodology for transport upscaling of three-dimensional highly heterogeneous
formations is developed and demonstrated. The overall approach
requires a prior hydraulic conductivity upscaling using an interblock-centered
full-tensor Laplacian-with-skin method followed by transport upscaling. The
coarse scale transport equation includes a multi-rate mass transfer term to
compensate for the loss of heterogeneity inherent to all upscaling processes.
The upscaling procedures for flow and transport are described in detail and
then applied to a three-dimensional highly heterogeneous synthetic example.
The proposed approach not only reproduces flow and transport at the coarse
scale, but it also reproduces the uncertainty associated with the predictions
as measured by the ensemble variability of the breakthrough curves.
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