The Kinematic Flow Structure for the Gvirtzman–Gorelick In Situ VOC Remediation System

Potential theory and Stokes' stream function techniques are used to investigate the flow structure around the recirculation system developed by Gvirtzman and Gorelick (1992, 1993), which consists of an extraction well and a gallery (trench) for the recharge of treated water to the aquifer. Analytical formulas are derived for the drawdown, velocity, and stream function for a model in which the extraction well is modeled as a uniformly distributed line sink and the gallery is modeled as a uniformly distributed ring source. Travel times are reported for water particles traveling along the streamlines containing 50 and 90% of the flow for various degrees of well penetration and various radii of the ring source. The travel times along the streamline resulting in the shortest travel time (not necessarily the shortest path) are also reported for various degrees of well penetration and various radii of the ring source. The method completely eliminates the use of numerical finite-difference or finite-element methods and can be used for optimization of technological parameters of this remediation system.