A developed technique for calculating the mass transfer between contaminated groundwater and porous media

On the basis of the extensive investigations of mineralogy, hydrogeology, and hydrogeochemistry in a dross-dumping area of the Shandong Aluminum Plant, China, this paper presents a new method for calculating the mass transfer between contaminated groundwater and porous media. The water-bearing media are considered as a mineral assemblage and the interactions between groundwater and water-bearing media as a series of geochemical reactions. Then, the principle of minimum energy and the equations of mass balance, electron balance, and electric neutrality are applied to set up a linear programming mathematical model for the calculation. Finally, the mathematical model is solved by means of a simplex method. It is concluded that the infiltration of wastewater has resulted in extensive geochemical reactions in the residue-dump area. Furthermore, the total energy in the groundwater system gradually declines and the geochemical system tends to be more stable along the groundwater flow direction.