Gaussian plume modeling of contaminant transport

A technique for modeling contaminant transport based on Markov process theory is developed. Transport is quantified by summing the first two moments of independent random displacements and applying the central limit theorem (CLT) to obtain solute distributions of a Gaussian nature. For non-uniform flow fields the CLT is applied in a streamfunction/equi-travel time space and transforms are used to give concentrations in Cartesian coordinates. Simulations in uniform, radially converging and circular flow fields show the method to be two to three orders of magnitude faster than modeling with the advection-dispersion equation, using a control volume technique.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]