Optimal Pulsed Pumping for Remediation of Aquifiers when Sorption Is Rate-Limited

A variational optimization technique is developed to acquire an optimal schedule of pulsed pumping operations for use at existing pump-and-treat aquifer remediation sites. The optimization problem is stated as a minimization of a generic management objective functional, constrained by the contaminant transport equations in two-dimensional or three-dimensional flow models which account for rate-limited sorption. The two-dimensional case is fully developed and a first-order rate equation is used to describe the transport of sorbing contaminant. The first variation provides necessary optimality conditions that must be met by any optimal solution, in turn leading to a pulsed pumping schedule of operation. The second variation provides necessary and sufficient optimality conditions that characterize the solution as minimal, maximal, or neither. General classes of functionals are examined to determine the types of objectives which can be achieved. Specific examples are presented to demonstrate how to use the method in conjunction with a numeric flow simulation, such as SUTRA.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering is the author of 'Optimal Pulsed Pumping for Remediation of Aquifiers when Sorption Is Rate-Limited', published 1997 under ISBN 9781423570967 and ISBN 1423570960.