Modeling Volatile Organic Compound Transport in Composite Liners
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 6
Abstract
Data from bench-scale composite liner experiments were compared with predictions made with two models, a finite-difference model and a semianalytical model, used to predict volatile organic compound (VOC) transport through composite liners. Transport parameters for the geomembrane and clay for five common VOCs were measured independently and used as input. Predictions from both models for all five VOCs were essentially identical. Excellent agreement was obtained between the predicted and measured concentrations for all five VOCs without model calibration. However, inherent variability in measured transport parameters has a significant effect on predictions. Volatile organic compound concentrations in the clay liner near the geomembrane-clay interface depend primarily on transport parameters for the geomembrane. However, this becomes less significant as the distance from the geomembrane-clay interface increases.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this study was provided by the State of Wisconsin’s Groundwater Research Advisory Council, which is administered by the Water Resources Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the U.S. Department of Energy under Cooperative Agreement Number DE-FC01-06EW07053 entitled “The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation III” awarded to Vanderbilt University. The opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the State of Wisconsin’s Groundwater Research Advisory Council, the U.S. Department of Energy, or Vanderbilt University. The authors thank Professor Kerry Rowe of Queens University for access to POLLUTE.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 138 • Issue 6 • June 2012
Pages: 641 - 657
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 16, 2011
Accepted: Sep 7, 2011
Published online: Sep 9, 2011
Published in print: Jun 1, 2012
Published ahead of production: Jun 15, 2012
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