Interaction Between Electromagnetic Waves and Transport in Saturated Media

Air sparging is one of the most popular remediation technologies. However, it is limited to a small radius of influence (ROI) surrounding the air injection well. Hence, there have been several efforts to improve its effectiveness. To study the possibility of improving the effectivity of air sparging electromagnetic (EM) waves, an easily visible analogous problem (dye transport in water) is studied in this paper. In order to quantify the effects of EM stimulation on flow of an inert, nonreactive dye in water, EM-stimulated and unstipulated dye transport experiments tests were performed and compared. To quantify this interaction, both dye transport and EM wave propoagation (only the electric field component Z) are quantified experimentally in lab-scale. In addition to the experimental mapping of the electric field at limited location on depth (i.e., vertical) slices, the electric field is simulated in COMSOL Multiphysics 4.1 in three dimensions (3D) for accurate field analysis. Transport analysis of the dye was performed using digital imaging to determine temporal and spatial concentration variations. The results show a visible effect on the dye transport mechanisms (i.e., fingering and diffusion). However, further study is needed to validate the proposed correlation between the electric field and the transport mechanisms.