Impacts of transport mechanisms and plume history on tailing of sorbing plumes in heterogeneous porous formations

•The plume transport and tailing past a single ellipsoidal heterogeneity is quantified.•A wide range of variation is considered for contributing parameters.•The impact of transport mechanisms and plume history on tailing is investigated.•Heterogeneities are classified in terms of potential for producing plume tailing. This work investigated the impacts of permeability and sorption heterogeneity on contaminant transport in groundwater using simulation experiments designed to elucidate the causes of tailing. The effects of advection, diffusion and sorption mechanisms and plume history were explored. A simple conceptual model consisting of a single inclusion (heterogeneity) of uniform hydraulic conductivity K and sorption distribution coefficient Kd was adopted. The 3D inclusion, shaped as a horizontal oblate ellipsoid of variable thickness, was placed in a homogeneous anisotropic background of different hydraulic conductivity and sorption distribution coefficient. The background represents average K and Kd of a heterogeneous porous formation. A closed-form analytic flow solution for uniform flow past the inclusion was coupled with a numerical transport solution to simulate contaminant migration for a wide range of transport parameters and two distinct source conditions. Over 2600 numerical simulations were performed in parallel. Transport results were presented in terms of travel time distributions at a control plane downstream of the inclusion and used to quantify tailing for a wide range of transport parameters, in order to separate advection-dominated from diffusion-dominated transport regime and to investigate effects of inclusion shape, diffusion, sorption and plume history on tailing.