Abstract

An environmental issue that has reached interest in the academic and industry is groundwater contamination. Moreover, government agencies are concerned, for example, about the widespread of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) in the underground due to incorrect disposal of this substance. Over the last five years we have done a great effort to enhance Cross Well Radar as a technology for detection of compounds which can be used to predict the mobility and persistence of chemicals in the unsaturated near surface. Image acquisition and processing has also been applied for contaminant detection and monitoring. In this poster, we describe a two-dimensional multiphase flow experiment that was designed to develop and evaluate two modes of concurrent detection and monitoring technologies: Cross Well Radar (CWR) and Image Analysis (IA). DNAPL transport experiments are conducted in unsaturated soil under transient conditions. Loop antennas preset at specific locations are used to evaluate wave scattering properties in the presence of contaminants, while color images are acquired. CWR and IA are used to establish the relation between electrical soil properties variations and changes spatial and temporal mass of contaminants. The technologies used in this research are both in development, but they can be successful tools for the detection, monitoring and imagining of underground contaminants and process. Once develop, the technology may be applied for detecting and monitoring other buried objects.

Notes

Poster presented at the 2007 Validating TestBED and Research on Real World Problems for I-PLUS Development Conference

Keywords

Contamination, groundwater, dense non-aqueous phase liquids, Cross Well Radar

Subject Categories

Groundwater--Pollution, Groundwater--Quality

Disciplines

Engineering

Publisher

Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (Gordon-CenSSIS)

Publication Date

2007

Rights Holder

Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (Gordon-CenSSIS)


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