Sustainable use of water resources and their protection against pollution requires fundamental understanding of filter, buffer and storage functions of groundwater systems. Of particular importance are heterogeneous porous aquifers including zones with mobile and immobile water. Substances diffuse from high permeable areas into immobile zones with low permeability. Consequently, substances can be stored in such immobile water regions and their residence time in double-permeable aquifers is much longer compared to water residence times. However, it still remains unknown how the heterogeneity of an aquifer and time-dependent variability of the water flow influences the fate of substances in such systems.

The objective of the thesis is (1) to conduct multi tracer experiments in dual permeable systems (impulse injection), (2) to investigate the influence of different flow rates on the diffusive exchange into immobile water zones and (3) to model experimental data to quantify observed processes.

The work will include the performance of multi tracer tests with bromide, deuterium and nitroaromatic compounds. Experimental data will be modelled using HYDRUS.

Bastian Knorr, Piotr Maloszewski und Christine Stumpp

The master student’s office is in Munich (Helmholtz Zentrum München, Institute of Groundwater Ecology).

Christine Stumpp christine.stumpp@helmholtz-muenchen.de Tel. +49 89 3187 4165

column experiments, multi tracer tests, modelling

English

Hünniger, M., 2011. Development of Experimental, Monitoring, and Mathematical Methods to Quantify Water Fluxes and Transport in Heterogeneous Aquifer System Models. Cuviller.

Krämer, F., 2011. Diffusive exchange of non-reactive substances in bi-porous groundwater systems – a column experiment. Diploma thesis, Technische Universität Freiberg.