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Numerical analysis of regional flow in saltwater/freshwater aquifer systems

Picture of a buckeye leaf with Thompson Library far in the background.
April 17, 2015
All Day
3150 Smith Lab

Environmental Science 7899 – Issues in Environmental Sciences

Watch the live seminar remotely via CarmenConnect

Seminar Chair: Gil Bohrer, bohrer.17@osu.edu
Seminar Coordinators: Michelle Smith, straley.23@osu.edu; Yanting Guo, zhao.1093@osu.edu

Course Requirements

This course is graded S/U. Satisfactory participation in this course includes all of the following: 

  1. Attentive and active participation in lectures and discussion. 
  2. Attendance at all classes, with one excused absence. If you must miss more than one class, see Dr. Bohrer.
  3. Advance reading for any seminars for which it is required

Numerical analysis of regional flow in saltwater/freshwater aquifer systems

By Hiroko Mori

The number of nuclear power plants is increasing and the radioactive waste generated by nuclear power generation remains a critical issue. Some of the radioactive waste took long-term for decay thus requires long period of safety storage. Deep geological formations are one of the potential radioactive repository sites and assessment of formations is important to ensure its safety. Aquifers, where freshwater overlaid saltwater, are nearly ubiquitous and these aquifers have high potential to become one of the repository sites. However, not many studies have investigated the effects of saltwater/freshwater mixing on groundwater evolution. Therefore, it is important to understand the long-term and large scale transport of saltwater/freshwater aquifer. MITSU3D was used to compute density dependent fluid flow. A series of numerical simulations are conducted to investigate transient salt transport and groundwater flow behavior in a small aquifer system. Preliminary results showed that changes in groundwater table topography play an important role in groundwater evolution.  

Hiroko Mori is a first year Ph.D student in the Environmental Science Graduate Program and her adviser is Dr. Motomu Ibaraki in Department of Earth Science. She has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and a Master’s degree from Colorado School of Mines in Hydrology. Her current research interests include hydrology; long-term/large-scale density dependent fluid flow simulation, and public health; hydrological impact on Vibrio spp epidemics.