Comparison of Numerical and Analytical Solutions for Breakthrough Curve Modeling

Study of contaminant transport in soil is of primary importance from a various environmental points of view. A modeling study is reported here for simulation of bromide transport. Four soil samples including disturbed and un-disturbed clay-loam and sandy-loam soil were analyzed through bromide injection and modeling contaminant breakthrough curve. Analytical and numerical solutions were applied through using CXTFIT and HYDRUS models, respectively, and compared to simulate the mechanism of bromide transport. The obtained results reveal that the analytical solutions offer more accuracy than the numerical solutions for modeling contaminant transport. This may be attributed to the simplifications of the numerical solutions.