Transport of Hydrocarbon Contaminants in Ice and Ice/Soil Systems

拟议的奖励是对为期三年的工作的支持。人们对寒冷地区的碳氢化合物污染物的去向几乎没有兴趣。对多年冻土等冻土中水分运动的研究一直很有限。随着人们对极地地区人类活动的兴趣增加，对冰冻条件下污染物迁移的研究也有所增加。这项工作包括三个部分：1)对冰和土壤/冰系统中影响运输过程的机制进行小规模研究；2)对已知经历过碳氢化合物污染的两个地点(一个是北极，另一个是南极)进行实地研究；以及3)开发一个计算机模型，以便能够分析和预测冰和冰/土壤系统中的碳氢化合物。土壤基质的时空变化是土壤污染调查的重要方面。在物理实验台规模研究中收集的数据将作为发展方程和记录排斥现象的基本支持。此外，它们还将提供关于粘土和淤泥百分比的影响以及污染物混合物的三种成分(即苯、甲苯和二甲苯)的排除系数的具体信息。实地研究数据将用于校准和验证运输模型。这项研究将扩展首席调查员目前在冰冻条件下模拟碳氢化合物-地下水相互作用方面所做的工作。

The proposed award is for the support of work over a three-year period. There has been little interest in the fate of hydro- carbon contaminants in cold regions. There has been limited research on water movement in such frozen soils as permafrost. Research on contaminant transport under freezing conditions has increased as interest in human activity in polar regions has increased. The work has three components: 1) bench-scale studies of mechanisms affecting transport processes in ice and soil/ice systems; 2) field studies of two locations (one arctic, the other antarctic) known to have experienced hydrocarbon contamination; and 3) development of a computer model to allow analysis and prediction of hydrocarbons in ice and ice/soil systems. Spatial and temporal variation in soil matrices are important aspects of soil contaminant investigations. Data collected in the physical bench-scale studies will serve as the underlying support for equation development and documentation of the exclusion phenomenon. Also, they will provide specific information on the effects of percent clay and silt, and on exclusion coefficients for the three components of the contaminant mixture (i.e., benzene,toluene and xylene). Field study data will serve to calibrate and validate a transport model. The research will extend current work being done by the Principal Investigators on modelling of hydrocarbon-groundwater interactions under freezing conditions.