Containment of Sources of Groundwater Contamination: Analysis of Mass Fluxes

Cutoff walls and liners are used frequently as barriers to isolate contaminants at both controlled and uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Neville and Andrews (2006) presented a containment criterion for contaminant isolation by a barrier. The analysis of Neville and Andrews (2006) yields the inward Darcy flux that balances the diffusive mass flux from the source so that the net mass flux is zero. A requirement of zero net mass flux may not be achievable in all situations. The analysis developed by Neville and Andrews (2006) is extended to develop straightforward expressions for the long-term mass fluxes across a barrier for any conditions. In cases where it may not be possible to satisfy a criterion of zero net mass flux, the results from an exact solution for transient solute transport are used to show how the mass fluxes evolve to their long-term values.