Theory and Applications of Transport in Porous Media – serie

Mechanics, the oldest branch of physics, to this day remains the basis for modern technology. This is especially evident with regard to the oil and gas industry. Almost all of the technological processes in these branches of industry, from the drilling of wells to the transporting of oil and gas products via pipelines, are mechanical in their nature. The processes of the development of oil and gas deposits are of primary importance in the whole technological chain of oil and gas extraction from the rocks and their transportation to the customer. The use of scientific methods for improving technology is a long-established tradition of oil and gas industry. For the Western reader, it is enough to mention the fundamental treatises by the outstanding American research scientist and engineer M. Muskat (1937, 1949) as well as the excellent books of Scheidegger (1960) and Collins (1961) which combine practical goals with profound theoretical analysis. The initiators of the application of mechanics for solving problems of the oil and gas industry in the U.S.S.R. were V.G. Shukhov (1981) and LS. Leibenzon (1934, 1947, 1953, 1955) whose works constitute admirable examples of Soviet technical thought. During recent times, the magnitude of oil and gas extraction has increased immensely and many reservoirs with complicated physical and geological properties have, therefore, entered into the development. The fundamental problem of enhancing oil and gas recovery from rocks has been intensively and deeply analyzed.

The main purpose of this book is to provide the theoretical background to engineers and scientists engaged in modeling transport phenomena in porous media, in connection with various engineering projects, and to serve as a text for senior and graduate courses on transport phenomena in porous media. Such courses are taught in various disciplines, e. g. , civil engineering, chemical engineering, reservoir engineering, agricultural engineering and soil science. In these disciplines, problems are encountered in which various extensive quantities, e. g. , mass and heat, are transported through a porous material domain. Often the porous material contains several fluid phases, and the various extensive quantities are transported simultaneously throughout the multiphase system. In all these disciplines, management decisions related to a system's development and its operation have to be made. To do so, the 'manager', or the planner, needs a tool that will enable him to forecast the response of the system to the implementation of proposed management schemes. This forecast takes the form of spatial and temporal distributions of variables that describe the future state of the considered system. Pressure, stress, strain, density, velocity, solute concentration, temperature, etc. , for each phase in the system, and sometime for a component of a phase, may serve as examples of state variables. The tool that enables the required predictions is the model. A model may be defined as a simplified version of the real (porous medium) system that approximately simulates the excitation-response relations of the latter.

The main purpose of this book is to provide the theoretical background to engineers and scientists engaged in modeling transport phenomena in porous media, in connection with various engineering projects, and to serve as a text for senior and graduate courses on transport phenomena in porous media. Such courses are taught in various disciplines, e. g. , civil engineering, chemical engineering, reservoir engineering, agricultural engineering and soil science. In these disciplines, problems are encountered in which various extensive quantities, e. g. , mass and heat, are transported through a porous material domain. Often the porous material contains several fluid phases, and the various extensive quantities are transported simultaneously throughout the multiphase system. In all these disciplines, management decisions related to a system's development and its operation have to be made. To do so, the 'manager', or the planner, needs a tool that will enable him to forecast the response of the system to the implementation of proposed management schemes. This forecast takes the form of spatial and temporal distributions of variables that describe the future state of the considered system. Pressure, stress, strain, density, velocity, solute concentration, temperature, etc. , for each phase in the system, and sometime for a component of a phase, may serve as examples of state variables. The tool that enables the required predictions is the model. A model may be defined as a simplified version of the real (porous medium) system that approximately simulates the excitation-response relations of the latter.

Transport phenomenain porous media are encounteredin various disciplines, e. g. , civil engineering, chemical engineering, reservoir engineering, agricul­ tural engineering and soil science. In these disciplines, problems are en­ countered in which various extensive quantities, e. g. , mass and heat, are transported through a porous material domain. Often, the void space of the porous material contains two or three fluid phases, and the various ex­ tensive quantities are transported simultaneously through the multiphase system. In all these disciplines, decisions related to a system's development and its operation have to be made. To do so a tool is needed that will pro­ vide a forecast of the system's response to the implementation of proposed decisions. This response is expressed in the form of spatial and temporal distributions of the state variables that describe the system's behavior. Ex­ amples of such state variables are pressure, stress, strain, density, velocity, solute concentration, temperature, etc. , for each phase in the system, The tool that enables the required predictions is the model. A model may be defined as a simplified version of the real porous medium system and the transport phenomena that occur in it. Because the model is a sim­ plified version of the real system, no unique model exists for a given porous medium system. Different sets of simplifying assumptions, each suitable for a particular task, will result in different models.

This text discusses basic concepts, theory, solution methods and applications of inverse problems in groundwater modelling. The inverse problem is defined and solved in both deterministic and statistic frameworks. Various direct and indirect methods are discussed and compared. The adjoint state method and its applications are described in detail. For a stochastic field, the maximum likelihood estimation and co-kriging techniques are used to estimate unknown parameters. The ill-posed problem of inverse solution is highlighted and the importance of data collection strategy is emphasized. Besides the classical design criteria, the relationships between decision making, prediction, parameter identification and experimental design are considered from the point of view of extended identifiabilities. The problem of model structure identification is also considered. This book is designed as a textbook for graduate students majoring in hydrogeology or related subjects. It is also a reference book for hydrogeologists, petroleum engineers, environmental engineers, mining engineers and applied mathematicians.

Recent years have witnessed the development of computational geomechanics as an important branch of engineering. The use of modern computational techniques makes it possible to deal with many complex engineering problems, taking into account many of the typical properties of geotechnical materials (soil and rock), such as the coupled behaviour of pore water and solid material, nonlinear elasto-plastic behaviour and transport processes. This book provides an introduction to these methods, presenting the basic principles of the geotechnical phenomena involved as well as the numerical models for their analysis and including full listings of computer programs (in PASCAL). The types of geotechnical problems considered cover a wide range of applications, varying from classical problems such as slope stability, analysis of foundation piles and sheet pile walls to finite element analysis of groundwater flow, elasto-plastic deformations, consolidation and transport problems.

This monograph focuses on adequate mathematical models of the deformation and failure of geological materials, and on corresponding experimental work. Borehole stability and water, gas and oil reservoir states are studied, and the actions of underground explosion and hydrofracture are described. Gas-condensate flows, permafrost and gas-hydrated soil changes, electrokinetic effects and dilatancy are considered. The theory of seismic waves, including their nonlinear evolution, is given. The lithosperic structure is discussed with respect to rock properties under high thermodynamic conditions. The internal boundaries of the lithosphere are interpreted physically, and the fluid dynamics of the Earth are connected to convection and mass-transfer phenomena. The basic concepts of continental drift and continental development are related to tectonic stress transmission, release at earthquake events and modulation due to Solar System oscillations. The theory of tectonic-wave deformation is developed. Necessary explanations are given against a background of continuum mechanics and mathematical physics.This is a textbook aimed at students specializing in such fields as oil and gas recovery, geophysics, the mining industries, explosions, and ecology.

It is an honour and pleasure to write a foreword to this useful and interesting book. Authors are very well known researchers who pioneered percolation modelling of transport in porous media in Russia from the early 80-th till nowadays. The main scope of the work presented in the book was developed when bright papers by A. Aharony, H.T. Davis, F.A.L. Dullien, A.A. Heiba, R.G. Larson, R. Lenormand, M.Sahimi, L.E. Scriven, D. Stauffer, M. Yanuka, Y.C.Yortsos were not available at the "other" side of the Iron Curtain. Nowadays hundreds of works and papers with the "percolation" keywords ap­ pear in petroleum and related applied research areas. The book will take a re­ markable place in the "petroleum percolation" bibliography. There are two important features of novelty in the monograph presented. First of all the authors developed a generalization of percolation clusters theory for grids with varying conductivity. Technique of representation of an infinite cluster as an hierarchial set of trees (so called r-chain model) allows to present conductivity of a stochastic grid in a closed form of explicit formulae. This method differs from those known in the West, such as effective media theory, solutions for the Bethe-lattice, etc. It has his own area of successful appli­ cations.

Porous media are ubiquitous throughout nature and in many modern technologies. Because of their omnipresent nature, porous media are studied to one degree or another in almost all branches of science and engineering. This text is an outgrowth of a two-semester graduate course on multiscale porous media offered to students in applied math, physics, chemistry, engineering (civil, chemical, mechanical, agricultural), and environmental and soil science. The text is largely based on a group efforts to build a rational approach to studying porous media over a hierarchy of spatial and temporal scales. No other text covers porous media on scales ranging from angstroms to miles. Nor does any other text develop and use such a diversity of tools for their study. The text is designed to be self-contained, as it presents all relevant mathematical and physical constructs.

This volume focuses on recent advances in the modelling of flow and transport in porous media. The first two sections deal with new model approaches and mathematical methods, including error estimates for approximate solutions, parameter sensitivity studies, and solution techniques for degenerate parabolic equations. The third section addresses mass transport and heat transfer in porous media. The final section covers multi-phase flow and multi-component transport. Model applications are linked to water management and pollution problems and include unsaturated as well as saturated soils, saltwater intrusions into coastal aquifers and contaminant dispersion. The key reference provided at the end of each chapter provides the reader with entry points for further detailed study. This book offers information for civil and hydraulic engineers involved in management of aquifers through numerical simulations. It also provides faculty and graduate students with recent developments in porous media modelling.

This monograph presents a treatment of release, migration and entrapment of fine particles in natural porous media. The first chapter treats the practical consequences of release and migration of fine particles in porous media. This is followed by a discussion of the basic mechanisms of release, transport and entrapment of fines. Mathematical and network models for prediction of permeability reduction are subsequently discussed. The last two chapters cover methods to prevent the release of fines and address the consequences for soil pollution. This text should be of interest to chemical, civil and petroleum engineers and environmental scientists and can also be used as a reference textbook for courses at senior and graduate level.

Multiphase systems dominate nearly every area of science and technology, and the method of volume averaging provides a rigorous foundation for the analysis of these systems. The development is based on classical continuum physics, and it provides both the spatially smoothed equations and a method of predicting the effective transport coefficients that appear in those equations. The text is based on a ten-week graduate course that has been taught for more than 20 years at the University of California at Davis and at other universities around the world. The theoretical foundations and the applications are included with each chapter, and detailed solutions for all problems are available from the author. The course has attracted participants from chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, hydrologic science, mathematics, chemistry and physics.

This volume covers the theories and practices of sea water intrusion in coastal aquifers. The subjects range from basics, such as the physical background and the mathematical theory, to technologies in geophysical and geochemical survey, monitoring, exploitation and restoration of aquifers, planning and management. For engineers, quantitative tools such as analytical solutions, numerical techniques, and stochastic analysis methodologies are provided. Several numerical codes that include two popular USGS computer programs SHARP and SUTRA, written by the original developers, and other advanced codes, are available for sharp interface and density-dependent transport modeling. Case studies include those of the USA, the Netherlands, Israel, and Egypt.

This text on fractures and fracture networks provides a systematic treatment of their geometrical and transport properties. Emphasis is put on the statistical analysis of complex three-dimensional structures, and on the development of numerical tools to solve transport equations in real structures. The book is divided into four parts. Part one introduces an analysis of random objects and transport and mechanical properties, while part two covers the geometrical and topological properties of single fractures and fracture networks. The third part deals with transport processes in fractured media. The final part contains the latest developments on coupled processes, for example the impact of external stress and deposition/dissolution processes on fracture development.

This is an attempt to develop the hydrodynamic theory of upscaling for complex flows through highly heterogeneous porous media. The basic consequence of high heterogeneity is the change of the equation type after homogenization that is associated, first of all, with the appearance of various non-local phenomena on the macroscale. All components of the upscaling procedure are examined for single-phase flow, immiscible two-phase and miscible multi-component flow. This book includes the modification of homogenization techniques, classification of flows, deduction of new effective models of flow, definition of the macroscale parameters and function, description of dynamic or non-equilibrium effects, solution of the cell problems, reduction of the two-phase cell problems to the saturation-independent ones, development of some effective tools to compute the effective functions in disordered highly heterogeneous media, computational analysis of the deduced models and applications to some problems of the oil industry.

These papers provide evidence that computer-based models, in particular numerical methods, are essential tools for the solution of many problems encountered in the field of flow and transport in porous media. The range of subject areas presented includes numerical methods, mass transport and heat transfer, and simulation studies. The text also details the applications of numerical techniques applied to inverse problems, reactive transport, unsaturated media or upscaling. This book should be of interest to all those involved in the integration of computer technology including numericians, hydrogeologists, researchers in soil and fluid mechanics and engineers involved in this multidisciplinary subject. It also provides faculty and graduate students with information on advances in porous media modelling.

Over the last decade and particularly in recent years, the macroscopic porous media theory has made decisive progress concerning the fundamentals of the theory and the development of mathematical models in various fields of engineering and biomechanics. This progress has attracted some attention, and therefore conferences devoted almost exclusively to the macrosopic porous media theory have been organized in order to collect all findings, to present new results, and to discuss new trends. Many important contributions have also been published in national and international journals, which have brought the porous media theory, in some parts, to a close. Therefore, the time seems to be ripe to review the state of the art and to show new trends in the continuum mechanical treatment of saturated and unsaturated capillary and non-capillary porous solids.This book addresses postgraduate students and scientists working in engineering, physics, and mathematics. It provides an outline of modern theory of porous media and shows some trends in theory and in applications.

vi Preface vii "Jugendstil house at the Hooistraat seen from the Nieuwe Uitleg, The Hague", by G. de Josselin de Jong, 1982. Washed pen, 38cm x 27,5 cm. Property of Mrs. Lagaay-Govers. viii Contents 1Preface v 2 ShortCurriculumVitaeofG.deJosselindeJong vii 3 SoilMechanics 1 3.1 IntroductiontoSoilMechanics ...3 3.2 Lower bound collapse theorem and lack of normality of strain rate to yield surface for soils, Proc. IUTAM Symp. on Rheology and Soil Mechanics, Grenoble, 1964, pp 69-78...6 3.3 Discussion, Proc. Eur. Conf. Soil Mech. & Found. Eng.,Oslo, 1968, pp 199-200 ...16 3.4 The double sliding, free rotating model for granular assemblies, G' eotechnique, 1971, pp 155-163...19 3.5 Photoelastic veri?cation of a mechanical model for the ?ow of a granular material, A. Drescher & G. de Josselin de Jong, J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 1972, Vol. 20, pp 337-351 ...28 3.6 Elasto-plastic version of the double sliding model in undrained simplesheartests,G' eotechnique,Vol. 38, No. 4, 1988, pp 533-555 (+Discussion G' eot., 39, No. 3, 1989, pp 565-566)...44 . 3.7 Improvement of the lowerbound solution for the vertical cut o? in a cohesive, frictionlesssoil, G' eotechnique, Technical Notes, June1978, pp 197-201 68 3.8 Application of the calculus of variations to the vertical cut o? in cohesivefrictionlesssoil,G' eotechnique,Vol.30,No.1,1980,pp1-16 73 . 3.9 A variational fallacy, G' eotechnique, Vol. 31, No. 2, 1981, pp 89 ...289-290 3.10 Consolidation around pore pressure meters, J. Appl. Phys.,Vol.

CLIFFORD K. HOAND STEPHEN W. WEBB Sandia National Laboratories, P. O. Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA Gas and vapor transport in porous media occur in a number of important applications includingdryingofindustrialandfoodproducts,oilandgasexploration,environm- tal remediation of contaminated sites, and carbon sequestration. Understanding the fundamental mechanisms and processes of gas and vapor transport in porous media allows models to be used to evaluate and optimize the performance and design of these systems. In this book, gas and vapor are distinguished by their available states at stan- ? dard temperature and pressure (20 C, 101 kPa). If the gas-phase constituent can also exist as a liquid phase at standard temperature and pressure (e. g. , water, ethanol, toluene, trichlorothylene), it is considered a vapor. If the gas-phase constituent is non-condensable at standard temperature and pressure (e. g. , oxygen, carbon di- ide, helium, hydrogen, propane), it is considered a gas. The distinction is important because different processes affect the transport and behavior of gases and vapors in porous media. For example, mechanisms specific to vapors include vapor-pressure lowering and enhanced vapor diffusion, which are caused by the presence of a g- phase constituent interacting with its liquid phase in an unsaturated porous media. In addition, the “heat-pipe” exploits isothermal latent heat exchange during evaporation and condensation to effectively transfer heat in designed and natural systems.

Groundwater resources are under increasing threat from growing demand, wasteful use, and contamination. Here, conceptual and mathematical models are provided that will help decision-making on the management and remediation of groundwater resources.

This book is a synthesis of emerging topics in heat and mass transfer in porous media. It brings together some of the world leaders in research on transport p- nomena in porous media to present the state of the art of its theory as well as the applicationofthetheoryinemerging?eldssuchasbioengineering,microelectronics and nanotechnology. The well renowned scientists presenting their ?ndings in the review chapters presented are not only among the best world leaders in their ?eld, they also capture the research that is undertaken in all the parts of the globe, from the Far East (Hong-Kong), the Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand and South Africa) to Europe and America. The book is separated into two parts. The ?rst presents the state of the art of the theory of heat and mass transfer in porous media and can be used in both the traditional (underground ?ow, ?ltering and reservoir engineering) as well as in the more recent emerging applications. The second part deals with emerging topics and applications of the theory to bioengineering, microelectronics, and nanotechnology. Traditionally,thetopicoftransportphenomenainporousmediawasalmostexc- sivelyreservedtothe?eldofunderground?ow(water,oil,gas,etc.)and?ltering.With some singular exceptions on applications to drying processes of fabric, the devel- ment of the theory of transport phenomena in porous media was historically driven by the needs of technologies linked to reservoir engineering or civil engineering. A turningpointinthisdevelopmentwasreachedintheearlypartofthesecondhalfinthe twentycenturywhenspecialattentiontoheattransferinporousmediayieldedan- ceedingexpansionofinterest.Thisdevelopmentcontinuedinthetwenty?rstcentury and reached recently such an impressive use in a diverse collection oftechnological applications that created the motivation behind the preparation of this book.

Groundwater constitutes an important component of many water resource systems, supplying water for domestic use, for industry, and for agriculture. Management of a groundwater system, an aquifer, or a system of aquifers, means making such decisions as to the total quantity of water to be withdrawn annually, the location of wells for pumping and for artificial recharge and their rates, and control conditions at aquifer boundaries. Not less important are decisions related to groundwater qUality. In fact, the quantity and quality problems cannot be separated. In many parts of the world, with the increased withdrawal of ground­ water, often beyond permissible limits, the quality of groundwater has been continuously deteriorating, causing much concern to both suppliers and users. In recent years, in addition to general groundwater quality aspects, public attention has been focused on groundwater contamination by hazardous industrial wastes, by leachate from landfills, by oil spills, and by agricultural activities such as the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, and by radioactive waste in repositories located in deep geological formations, to mention some of the most acute contamination sources. In all these cases, management means making decisions to achieve goals without violating specified constraints. In order to enable the planner, or the decision maker, to compare alternative modes of action and to ensure that the constraints are not violated, a tool is needed that will provide information about the response of the system (the aquifer) to various alternatives.

Groundwater constitutes an important component of many water resource systems, supplying water for domestic use, for industry, and for agriculture. Management of a groundwater system, an aquifer, or a system of aquifers, means making such decisions as to the total quantity of water to be withdrawn annually, the location of wells for pumping and for artificial recharge and their rates, and control conditions at aquifer boundaries. Not less important are decisions related to groundwater qUality. In fact, the quantity and quality problems cannot be separated. In many parts of the world, with the increased withdrawal of ground­ water, often beyond permissible limits, the quality of groundwater has been continuously deteriorating, causing much concern to both suppliers and users. In recent years, in addition to general groundwater quality aspects, public attention has been focused on groundwater contamination by hazardous industrial wastes, by leachate from landfills, by oil spills, and by agricultural activities such as the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, and by radioactive waste in repositories located in deep geological formations, to mention some of the most acute contamination sources. In all these cases, management means making decisions to achieve goals without violating specified constraints. In order to enable the planner, or the decision maker, to compare alternative modes of action and to ensure that the constraints are not violated, a tool is needed that will provide information about the response of the system (the aquifer) to various alternatives.

This state-of-the-art book clearly explains the basic principles of soil hydrology and the current knowledge in this field. It particularly highlights the estimation and application of measurements and evaluation of soil-hydrophysical characteristics using simulation models, with a focus on elucidating the basic hydrophysical characteristics of soil, such as soil water potential and hydraulic conductivity, as well as the methods of measurement. It also addresses topics such as stony soil, water repellent soils, and water movement modeling in those media. The book presents soil hydrology in a simple way, while quantitatively expressing the soil water state and movement. It clearly and precisely describes basic terms of soil hydrology with a minimum of mathematics. It also includes the latest research findings in the field as well as the basics of the mathematical modeling of water movement in the soil-plant-atmosphere system (SPAS), using original research results to illustrate these issues.This book is of interest to all scientists and professionals in soil hydrology, including beginners, as well as those interested and working in hydrology in general and soil hydrology in particular. In addition, it can also be used by specialists and students in related fields like agronomy, forestry, meteorology, hydrology, environmental engineering, environmental protection, and geography.

This state-of-the-art book clearly explains the basic principles of soil hydrology and the current knowledge in this field. It particularly highlights the estimation and application of measurements and evaluation of soil-hydrophysical characteristics using simulation models, with a focus on elucidating the basic hydrophysical characteristics of soil, such as soil water potential and hydraulic conductivity, as well as the methods of measurement. It also addresses topics such as stony soil, water repellent soils, and water movement modeling in those media. The book presents soil hydrology in a simple way, while quantitatively expressing the soil water state and movement. It clearly and precisely describes basic terms of soil hydrology with a minimum of mathematics. It also includes the latest research findings in the field as well as the basics of the mathematical modeling of water movement in the soil-plant-atmosphere system (SPAS), using original research results to illustrate these issues.This book is of interest to all scientists and professionals in soil hydrology, including beginners, as well as those interested and working in hydrology in general and soil hydrology in particular. In addition, it can also be used by specialists and students in related fields like agronomy, forestry, meteorology, hydrology, environmental engineering, environmental protection, and geography.

This book provides essential background knowledge on a wide range of hydrological processes governing contaminant transport from soil to surface water across a range of scales, from hillslope to watershed. The mathematical description of these processes is based on both well-known and unique analytical solutions of different initial and boundary problems (primarily using methods from the kinematic wave theory and the reservoir/lumped-parameter concept), supported by numerical modelling studies. Some research topics, in particular several case studies, are illustrated by monitoring and experimental data analysis to show the importance of the research’s applications in environmental practice and environmental education. Specific results concern the recognition of: (a) the effect of transient rainfall–runoff–infiltration partitioning on the chemical response of drainage areas to excess precipitation under certain field conditions related to the soil, hillslope characteristics, and contaminant properties; (b) soil erosion as a key factor that enhances the potential of adsorbed chemical transport in runoff; and (c) common tendencies in radionuclide behaviour in the near-surface environment contaminated by radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl (1986), Fukushima (2011) and the less known Kyshtym (1957) accidents, as well as from nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere since 1952.The book’s goal is to provide a conceptual foundation enabling readers to apply scientific knowledge to solve practical problems in environmental hydrology and radiology. More specifically, the book presents the state-of-the-art approaches thatscientists and natural resources experts need in order to significantly improve the prediction of changes in the soil–water system chemistry due to human activities.

This book treats the mechanics of porous materials infiltrated with a fluid (poromechanics), focussing on its linear theory (poroelasticity). Porous materials from inanimate bodies such as sand, soil and rock, living bodies such as plant tissue, animal flesh, or man-made materials can look very different due to their different origins, but as readers will see, the underlying physical principles governing their mechanical behaviors can be the same, making this work relevant not only to engineers but also to scientists across other scientific disciplines. Readers will find discussions of physical phenomena including soil consolidation, land subsidence, slope stability, borehole failure, hydraulic fracturing, water wave and seabed interaction, earthquake aftershock, fluid injection induced seismicity and heat induced pore pressure spalling as well as discussions of seismoelectric and seismoelectromagnetic effects. The work also explores the biomechanics of cartilage, bone and blood vessels.Chapters present theory using an intuitive, phenomenological approach at the bulk continuum level, and a thermodynamics-based variational energy approach at the micromechanical level. The physical mechanisms covered extend from the quasi-static theory of poroelasticity to poroelastodynamics, poroviscoelasticity, porothermoelasticity, and porochemoelasticity. Closed form analytical solutions are derived in details.   This book provides an excellent introduction to linear poroelasticity and is especially relevant to those involved in civil engineering, petroleum and reservoir engineering, rock mechanics, hydrology, geophysics, and biomechanics.

This book provides essential background knowledge on a wide range of hydrological processes governing contaminant transport from soil to surface water across a range of scales, from hillslope to watershed. The mathematical description of these processes is based on both well-known and unique analytical solutions of different initial and boundary problems (primarily using methods from the kinematic wave theory and the reservoir/lumped-parameter concept), supported by numerical modelling studies. Some research topics, in particular several case studies, are illustrated by monitoring and experimental data analysis to show the importance of the research’s applications in environmental practice and environmental education. Specific results concern the recognition of: (a) the effect of transient rainfall–runoff–infiltration partitioning on the chemical response of drainage areas to excess precipitation under certain field conditions related to the soil, hillslope characteristics, and contaminant properties; (b) soil erosion as a key factor that enhances the potential of adsorbed chemical transport in runoff; and (c) common tendencies in radionuclide behaviour in the near-surface environment contaminated by radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl (1986), Fukushima (2011) and the less known Kyshtym (1957) accidents, as well as from nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere since 1952.The book’s goal is to provide a conceptual foundation enabling readers to apply scientific knowledge to solve practical problems in environmental hydrology and radiology. More specifically, the book presents the state-of-the-art approaches thatscientists and natural resources experts need in order to significantly improve the prediction of changes in the soil–water system chemistry due to human activities.

This book presents a systematic attempt to generalize several fundamental physical laws related to subsurface fluid flow that are important for a number of contemporary applications in the areas of hydrogeology, reservoir engineering and rock mechanics. It also covers the history of discovering these physical laws, their respective scope of validity, and their generalizations or extensions. The physical laws discussed include Darcy’s law, Darcy-Buckingham law and Hooke’s law. Darcy’s law is the fundamental law for subsurface fluid flow. For low-permeability media, it is not always adequate because of the strong fluid–solid interaction. Though the Darcy-Buckingham law is often used for modeling subsurface multiphase flow, it is only valid under the local equilibrium condition. This condition does not hold in many cases, especially when fingering flow occurs. It is well known that subsurface fluid flow is coupled with mechanical deformation of subsurface media; in some applications, this coupling can play a dominant role. The continuum-scale elastic deformation of natural rock, however, does not always follow the traditional form of Hooke’s law.The book also presents applications of the proposed generalizations of the physical laws to several important engineering projects.