9313260 Protopapas This is a award to provide support for research, the objective of which is to advance the macroscopic description of flow and transport in heterogeneous soils, improve knowledge of the microscale mechanism of fluid infiltration into soil, obtain a better understanding than now exists of the effect that small particulates have on field-scale fluid behavior in soil, and accounting for randomness of the hydraulic properties of soil in numerical models that are intended to describe flow and transport properties of porous media. The investigator plans to address these issues both theoretically and experimentally by developing new experimental techniques for analyzing pore scale infiltration, validation of existing the existing theory regarding unsteady infiltration in heterogeneous soils, and improvement of the models that result from additional theoretical effort and experimental validation. Results of this project are expected to be utilized in engineering design of water and wastewater management systems that involve seepage from surface locations through soil and into groundwater aquifers. The work is also expected to develop new laboratory methods and techniques for study of fluid behavior in heterogeneous porous media, thus assisting in applying resultant models in the engineering design of fluid management systems such as artificial wetlands for wastewater treatment and cutoff walls for containment of water, wastewater or hazardous wastes.
