Stochastic Finite-Element Approach to Quantify and Reduce Uncertainty in Pollutant Transport Modeling
Publication: Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste
Volume 15, Issue 3
Abstract
One of the important issues in simulation of contaminant transport in the subsurface is how to quantify the hydraulic properties of soil that are randomly variable in space because of soil heterogeneity. Stochastic approaches have the potential to represent spatially variable parameters, making them an appropriate tool to incorporate the effects of the spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties on contaminant fate. This paper presents development and application of a numerical model for simulation of advective and diffusive-dispersive contaminant transport using a stochastic finite-element approach. Employing the stochastic finite-element method proposed in this study, the response variability is reproduced with a high accuracy. Comparison of the results of the proposed method with the results obtained using the Monte Carlo approach yields a pronounced reduction in the computation cost while resulting in virtually the same response variability as the Monte Carlo technique.
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Published In
Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste
Volume 15 • Issue 3 • July 2011
Pages: 208 - 215
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 9, 2010
Accepted: Jul 20, 2010
Published online: Jun 15, 2011
Published in print: Jul 1, 2011
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