Conventional in-situ light non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) remediation techniques often face challenges of high costs and limited efficiency, leaving residual hydrocarbons trapped in soil pores. This study investigates the efficiency of an alcohol-in-biopolymer emulsion for enhancing diesel-contaminated soil remediation. The emulsion, formulated with xanthan gum biopolymer, sodium dodecyl sulfate surfactant, and the oil-soluble alcohol 1-pentanol, was evaluated through rheological tests, interfacial tension measurements, and onedimensional sand-column experiments under direct injection and post-waterflooding scenarios. The emulsion exhibited non-Newtonian shear-thinning behavior with high viscosity, ensuring stable propagation and efficient delivery of 1-pentanol to mobilize trapped diesel ganglia. It achieved 100 % diesel recovery within 1.2 PV during direct injection, outperforming shear-thinning polymer-only and polymer-surfactant solutions, which achieved recovery factors of 83.4-92.9 %. Post-waterflooding experiments also demonstrated 100 % diesel recovery within 1.3 PV, regardless of initial diesel saturation. Key mechanisms include reduced interfacial tension, diesel swelling and mobilization induced by 1-pentanol, and uniform displacement facilitated by the emulsion's viscosity. Additionally, the emulsion required lower injection pressures compared to more viscous alternatives, enhancing its injectability into the soil and reducing energy demands. These findings highlight the emulsion's potential to overcome conventional remediation limitations, offering a highly effective and sustainable solution for diesel-contaminated soils and groundwater.

This study presents a method for remediating soils contaminated by organic pollutants through the selective blocking of pores. This technique is based on the use of yield stress fluids, specifically concentrated biopolymer solutions, which, due to their distinctive rheological properties, preferentially flow through high-conductance flow paths. Following the injection of yield stress fluid, its presence redirects subsequent water flow towards the pores that are typically unswept during standard waterflooding. Laboratory experiments at the pore scale were conducted to validate this method and confirm previous findings from core-flooding experiments. Aqueous xanthan gum solutions were used as microscopic blocking agents in well-characterized micromodels exhibiting microscopic heterogeneities in pore size. The impact of polymer concentration, soil wettability and operating conditions (injection pressure and flow rate) on the residual pollutant saturation following treatment was analyzed, enabling the optimization of the remediation strategy. The use of xanthan gum as a blocking agent led to a significant improvement in pollutant removal compared to conventional waterflooding, delivering consistently better results across all cases studied. The method demonstrated strong performance in water-wet medium, with the average polymer concentration yielding the highest efficiency in pollutant removal.

This paper introduces a thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) framework to model thaw consolidation in permafrost regions. By integrating internal energy degradation functions and a modified Cam-Clay model within a phase-field damage framework, the model focuses on simulating the simultaneous effects of phase change and particle rearrangement. The model integrates two distinct phase-field variables with the modified Cam-Clay plasticity framework. One phase-field variable monitors pore phase composition, while the other captures particle rearrangement. These variables are directly coupled to the constitutive model, providing critical data for updating the stress-strain relationship by accounting for particle rearrangement-induced softening and hardening effects due to volumetric deformation. The model converges to the modified Cam-Clay model when there is no phase change. This approach addresses a significant gap in existing models by capturing the associated microstructural evolution and plastic softening in thaw-sensitive soils. Validation efforts focus on experimental scenarios assessing both the mechanical impacts of thaw consolidation and the dynamics of phase transitions, particularly emphasizing latent heat effects. The results demonstrate the proposing model's capability of handling complex behaviors of permafrost under thaw conditions, confirming its potential for enhancing infrastructure resilience in cold regions.

Current studies on soil tortuosity models typically assume a single particle size, neglecting the impact of particle gradation and spatial arrangement on pore channels and structures. To address this limitation, we develop a tortuosity model that incorporates multiple factors by assuming ellipsoidal particles and accounting for their arrangement and gradation. This model, combined with the Bingham fluid flow equation in porous media, elucidates the spherical penetration grouting mechanism of Bingham fluids, considering both tortuosity and time-varying viscosity. Using COMSOL Multiphysics, we simulate seepage to create a numerical program for Bingham fluid spherical seepage grouting that accounts for tortuosity and time-varying viscosity. Theoretical analysis and simulations validate our proposed tortuosity model and diffusion mechanisms. Additionally, we examine the sensitivity of the diffusion radius to Bingham grout rheology, grouting pressure, groundwater pressure, and grouting pipe radius. The research results demonstrate that the established tortuosity theoretical model is in excellent agreement with numerical simulations, with a maximum error of less than 3%. The spherical permeation grouting diffusion mechanism of Bingham fluid, which accounts for the tortuosity effect of porous media, more closely matches the experimental test values, achieving an average error of 10.13% and a minimum error of 3%. Grouting pressure and groundwater pressure are key factors, and their interaction with the grouting pipe radius has the strongest effect. These research findings provide valuable theoretical support for designing construction controls related to restoration projects involving porous medium earth-rock dams.

The geometric structure and topological configuration of particles exert a significant influence on the pore structure characteristics of soil and the permeability of particle-pore media. Utilising the spatial random convexity growth algorithm, soil particle models with varying anisotropic shapes were generated. By employing PFC(Particle Flow Code) software, the accumulation behaviour of soil particles under natural gravity was simulated.Subsequently, AVIZO software, an advanced software for three-dimensional image analysis and scientific visualization, was used to extract the characteristic parameters of the pore structure, and numerical simulations of seepage in porous media were conducted. The permeability test was carried out to verify the numerical model.The grey correlation analysis was carried out based on the normalization method. The results showed that the correlation between particle size and permeability coefficient was 0.82, which was dominant. The particle size mainly affects the channel cross-sectional area of the pore structure. When the particle size increases, the absolute permeability increases from 0.4 to 1.2 mu m. The correlation coefficients between sphericity and fractal dimension and tortuosity are 0.848 and 0.758, indicating that particle shape will seriously affect the complexity and connectivity of pore structure. When the particle size distribution exhibits a right-skew, the peak equivalent diameter is predominantly centered within the range of 0.6-0.7 mu m. Additionally, the occurrence of larger pores is more prevalent compared to normal and uniform distributions; however, the impact of this phenomenon on permeability remains relatively constrained.

This paper presents a general method for defining the macroscopic free-energy density function and its complementary forms for a porous medium saturated by two non-miscible fluids, in the case of compressible fluid and solid constituents, non-isothermal conditions and negligible interfacial surface energy. The major advantage of the proposed approach is that no limitation or simplification is posed on the choice of the free energies of the fluid constituents. As a result, a fully non-linear equation of state for the pore fluids can be incorporated within the proposed framework. The method is presented under the assumption that interfacial surface energy terms are negligible, thus recovering a Bishop parameter chi coinciding with the degree of saturation, which is expected to be applicable mostly to non-plastic soils. Moreover, small strains of the solid skeleton are assumed, but the method can be easily extended to a large strain formulation as discussed below. The paper analyzes also some particular cases concerning the incompressibility of all constituents, the geometric linearization and the incompressibility only of the solid constituent. The knowledge of the free energy density function is the starting point for the evaluation of the dissipation function, of energy and entropy balance and, in general, for the formulation of thermodynamically consistent constitutive models.

The clogging of porous media with solid particle suspension flow is modeled using two empirical parameters of filtration coefficient (7) and formation damage coefficient (/3). These parameters are typically determined through coreflood tests. This study employs machine learning techniques to predict 7 and /3 using experimental data from open literature. The prediction of /3 is based on critical porosity fraction (gamma) data and a power law equation relating /3 and gamma. Collected data were randomly partitioned into training (80 %) and testing (20 %) subsets. Four regression algorithms were employed, treating 7 or gamma as the target variable, with injection velocity (um), particle concentration (Cin), and ratio of mean pore size (Dpore) to mean particle size (Dp) as features. The extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm showed the best performance. The feature Cin had the highest influence on 7 and gamma, revealing a significant finding previously overlooked. Postmortem analyses revealed qualitative consistencies in 7 results, supporting the existence of critical velocities. Furthermore, 7 results showed a power law relation between 7 and all three features used. An equation was formulated to estimate 7 as a function of these three features. A direct prediction of /3 using these features was established by applying the XGBoost model to predict gamma and then employing an existing power law relationship between /3 and gamma. This study demonstrated that machine learning offers an alternative approach for predicting 7 and /3, which is particularly useful for initial evaluations of clogging potentials and identification of experimental conditions to focus on.

The transient response of porous media is an important aspect of dynamic research. However, existing studies seldom provide solutions to the transient response problem of layered unsaturated porous media. Based on the Biot-type unsaturated wave equations, dimensionless one-dimensional wave equations are established. An appropriate displacement function is introduced to homogenize the boundary conditions. Subsequently, the transfer matrix method is used to obtain the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the homogeneous governing equations. Leveraging the orthogonality of the eigenfunctions, the original problem is transformed into solving a series of initial value problems of ordinary differential equations. The temporal solution within the time domain is then obtained through an improved precise time integration method. The validity of the solution presented in this paper is verified by comparing it with existing solutions in the literature. Analysis of numerical examples shows that reflection waves of opposite phases will be generated at the hard-soft and hard-harder interface, which helps in the accurate identification of weak interlayers in practical engineering applications. With increasing saturation, there is a noticeable increase in the velocities of the P1\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$P_{1}$$\end{document} and P3\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$P_{3}$$\end{document} waves, whereas the velocity of the P2\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$P_{2}$$\end{document} waves tends to decrease, which can be used to assess the mechanical property of medium. The peak value of pore pressure in unsaturated can be 1.64 times higher than those in saturated condition.

Remediating soils contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is a challenging task due to the unique properties of these compounds, such as variable solubility and resistance to degradation. In-situ soil flushing with solvents has been considered as a remediation technique for PFAS-contaminated soils. The use of non-Newtonian fluids, displaying variable viscosity depending on the applied shear rate, can offer certain advantages in improving the efficiency of the process, particularly in heterogeneous porous media. In this work, the efficacy of ethanol/xanthan mixture (XE) in the recovery of a mixture of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), and perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS) from soil has been tested at lab-scale. XE's non-Newtonian behavior was examined through rheological measurements, confirming that ethanol did not affect xanthan gum's (XG) shear-thinning behavior. The recovery of PFAS in batch-desorption exceeded 95 % in ethanol, and 99 % in XE, except for PFBS which reached 94 %. 1D-column experiments revealed overshoots in PFAS breakthrough curves during ethanol and XE injection, due to oversolubilization. XE, (XG 0.05 % w/w) could recover 99 % PFOA, 98 % PFBS, 97 % PFHxS, and 92 % PFOS. Numerical modeling successfully reproduces breakthrough curves for PFOA, PFHxS, and PFBS with the convection-dispersion-sorption equation and Langmuir sorption isotherm.

Existing analytical solutions available for simulating slurry infiltration do not account for the effect of particle dispersion and blockage at the same time. In view of this, a mathematical model of slurry particle migration in a saturated porous media with the convection-dispersion-deposition effect is established, and a semi-analytical solution of the particle transport problem with time discretization is obtained using an integral transformation. The correctness and rationality of the method are verified by comparing the experimental and theoretical results of the one-dimensional particle transport problem in constant pressure injection and constant velocity injection modes. The results of the method are in good agreement with those obtained from commercial finite element analyses. The spatiotemporal distribution of particle concentration, slurry deposition, soil porosity, pore water pressure, flow velocity in soil column can be easily obtained by the method. The pore water pressure calculated using this method is compared with the measured result during slurry shield drilling stops, demonstrating the potential application of this method in slurry engineering. The parametric analysis indicated that increasing the excavation chamber pressure and slurry concentration can accelerate the pore water pressure dissipation and the mud cake formation.