Measured and computed solute transport behaviour in the saturated zone of a fractured and slightly karstified chalk aquifer

Solute transport in the saturated zone of a micro-fissured, fractured and even locally slightly karstified aquifer has been studied by multi-tracer tests in groundwater convergent flow conditions to pumping wells or towards a collecting gallery. Different behaviour has been detected that can be described by three kinds of typical breakthrough curves: (a) transport with a dominant advective component, producing narrow and symmetrical observed breakthrough curves, characteristic of solute transport in open fractures or conduits; (b) transport with significant advective and dispersive components exhibiting more spread-out breakthrough curves, with also non-symmetrical trends caused by retardation effects; (c) transport with a dominant dispersive component, showing mostly a flat breakthrough curve where dispersion and possible immobile water effects are difficult to be separated. These results were synthesized from thirty-five injections of tracers, distributed between 11 sites.
Groundwater flow and solute transport are simulated and illustrated here for one example, employing the finite element code HYDROGEOSPHERE, and using two ways for representing the fracture zones: highly contrasting hydraulic conductivity zones with a classical REV approach and discrete fractures combined with a porous medium by the use of a dual approach. Results are particularly illustrative to show that detailed parameterization and calibration of such a local situation remain difficult even on the basis of an extensive data sets from many tracer tests.