Simulating groundwater contaminants

Developed through the collaboration of researchers from UB and around the world, Virtual Porous Medium (VPM) is a numerical laboratory designed for modeling groundwater contaminants in heterogeneous aquifer formations. Using VPM at UB’s Center for Computational Research, tens of thousands of simulations have been carried out, ultimately relating the rates of contaminant spreading to heterogeneity structures and contributing to the development of a contaminant-spreading theory. Unlike other theories of contaminant spreading, the VPM-produced theory is applicable regardless of heterogeneity levels.

The laboratory also has been used to investigate the general effective properties of heterogeneous materials, which is an area of inquiry relevant to many branches of physics. These effective properties, investigated for over a century, are a central problem for at least eight different physical processes. Applications range from electrical and thermal conduction to the design of carbon nanotubes to remote sensing.

In a paper published in the journal Multiscale Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation, VPM researchers were able to disprove a famous formula for effective properties that was conjectured by Lev Davidovich Landau, the 1962 Nobel Prize laureate for physics. Following these results, a new analytical formula was derived that can predict effective properties for a wide range of problems.

The VPM model was developed by Igor Jankovic, assistant professor, Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, and colleagues Gedeon Dagan, professor, Department of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, Tel Aviv University, Israel; Aldo Fiori, associate professor, Department of Civil Engineering–Water Resources Unit, University of Roma Tre, Italy; and Eliot Winer, now assistant professor, Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University. Much of the work is funded by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation.