TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zech, Alraune
A1  - Attinger, Sabine
A1  - Bellin, Alberto
A1  - Cvetkovic, Vladimir
A1  - Dietrich, Peter
A1  - Fiori, Aldo
A1  - Teutsch, Georg
A1  - Dagan, Gedeon
T1  - A Critical Analysis of Transverse Dispersivity Field Data
T2  - Groundwater : journal of the Association of Ground-Water Scientists and Engineers, a division of the National Ground Water Association
N2  - Transverse dispersion, or tracer spreading orthogonal to the mean flow direction, which is relevant e.g, for quantifying bio-degradation of contaminant plumes or mixing of reactive solutes, has been studied in the literature less than the longitudinal one. Inferring transverse dispersion coefficients from field experiments is a difficult and error-prone task, requiring a spatial resolution of solute plumes which is not easily achievable in applications. In absence of field data, it is a questionable common practice to set transverse dispersivities as a fraction of the longitudinal one, with the ratio 1/10 being the most prevalent. We collected estimates of field-scale transverse dispersivities from existing publications and explored possible scale relationships as guidance criteria for applications. Our investigation showed that a large number of estimates available in the literature are of low reliability and should be discarded from further analysis. The remaining reliable estimates are formation-specific, span three orders of magnitude and do not show any clear scale-dependence on the plume traveled distance. The ratios with the longitudinal dispersivity are also site specific and vary widely. The reliability of transverse dispersivities depends significantly on the type of field experiment and method of data analysis. In applications where transverse dispersion plays a significant role, inference of transverse dispersivities should be part of site characterization with the transverse dispersivity estimated as an independent parameter rather than related heuristically to longitudinal dispersivity.
Y1  - 2019
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/48932
SN  - 0017-467X
SN  - 1745-6584
VL  - 57
IS  - 4
SP  - 632
EP  - 639
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -