Numerical Analysis of Pollutant Dispersion in Artificial Aquifers

Water is the most abundant natural resource necessary for life and can be found in rivers, lakes, oceans, glaciers and aquifers. Groundwater has a special value because it is of higher purity and quality, so it acts as a natural reserve. This water is found underground protected by rock formations and the water table, but even so there are activities capable of contaminating this precious asset. The aim of this research is to demonstrate how the process of aquifer contamination works through computational modelling of pollution in artificial aquifers. The results were obtained using an open source computational fluid dynamics package, OpenFOAM. The simulations show the behaviour of the contaminant in the aquifer according to the laws of fluid mechanics, the influence of the velocity and pressure field around the aquifer on dispersion and the time it takes to contaminate the region. It can be seen that mathematical modelling applied to the environment is a great alternative to seek new means of mitigation for polluting activities.