Influence of Water Saturation on Adsorption Behavior at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces in Unsaturated Porous Media

Adsorption reaction in unsaturated porous media is of great importance for soil and groundwater remediation. In this study, the influence of the Peclet number (Pe) and water saturation on adsorption behavior at liquid-liquid interfaces was quantitatively investigated. The pore-scale reactive transport in unsaturated porous media was directly simulated. The Navier-Stokes equations, the surface transfer and adsorption reaction equations, and the advection-diffusion equation (ADE) were coupled to obtain the flow and concentration fields. The results showed that water saturation had a significant influence on the complexity of the flow field. A nonmonotonic relationship was found between water saturation and the uniformity of the flow field. Peclet number had little influence on the maximum adsorption. On the other hand, the adsorption time showed a nearly linear relationship with the Peclet number and increased with increasing Peclet number. Additionally, a nonlinear relationship was found between water saturation and the maximum adsorption. As water saturation increased, the maximum adsorption tended to increase to a peak and then decrease. The peak of the maximum adsorption occurred at Pe=5, Sw=0.458, and the shortest adsorption time was observed at Sw=0.902. However, the difference in adsorption times for saturations of 0.458 and 0.698 was not significant and was only about 20 PV difference.

Automated summary

This study quantitatively investigated the influence of the Peclet number and water saturation on adsorption behavior in unsaturated porous media. The results showed that water saturation had a significant influence on the complexity of the flow field, while the Peclet number had little influence on the maximum adsorption.