Effect of ground moisture on spread of contaminants in sand deposit -an experimental study

Contaminant transport modeling needs the understanding of the factors affecting the movement of contaminant through dry, partially saturated and saturated zone. When the contaminant reaches the ground water, it primarily follows the pattern of ground water flow in sand deposits. While the contaminant passing through dry or partially saturated soil, its movement depends on a number of parameters such as porosity, soil moisture and contaminant properties. This paper presents the details of a laboratory investigation carried out to study the spread of Glycerol and engine oil, in dry and wet sandy soil. Experiments were conducted, using ‘Pollutant Transport Test apparatus’ which was designed and developed for the project. The test results indicated that : the spread of an aqueous phase liquid is greater in wet sand than in dry sand and the vertical spread of nonaqueous phase liquid was less in wet sand than in dry sand,but the lateral spread of that was more.