Travel-time distribution from a finite line contamination source to an extraction well with regional flow

Advective transport from a finite line contamination source to an extraction well with regional flow depends on interplay of radial and regional flows, a scheme commonly encountered in capture zone delineation. We have investigated travel-time distribution from a finite line contamination source and the associated breakthrough curves (BTCs) observed at an extraction well. The resulting travel-time distribution and BTCs depend on dimensionless source length, dimensionless pumping rate, and inclined angle of the source with respect to the regional flow, where the dimensionless terms are lumped parameters involving source length, pumping rate, distance between the source and the extraction well, aquifer thickness, and regional flow discharge. The observed concentration at the extraction well increases with time in a sub-linear manner. When the source orientation is perpendicular to the regional flow, the dimensionless first arrival time only depends on the dimensionless pumping rate whereas the dimensionless steady-state arrival time depends on both the dimensionless pumping rate and the dimensionless source length. The steady-state concentration at the extraction well is sensitive to the dimensionless source length and the inclined angle of the source with respect to the regional flow, but not sensitive to the dimensionless pumping rate. Two special cases where the extraction well is very close to the source and the regional flow can be negligible have also been discussed.