ABSTRACT
A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate the behavioral diversity of partitioning, interfacial, and conservative tracers in water-saturated subsurface systems where NAPLs were entrapped. Existing theoretical assumptions and computational methods, which rely on instantaneous equilibrium partitioning, were employed to test their validity and relative error when applied to complexly distributed NAPLs, such as the pooled occurrence. Results show assumption of reversible equilibrium behavior may lead to gross underestimation of NAPL amount and incorrect prediction of NAPL distribution.
