A numerical Lagrangian stochastic approach to upscaling of dispersivity in solute transport

The upscaling of dispersivity in solute transport in heterogeneous aquifers is addressed with a numerical stochastic formulation. This work represents progress toward converting theory into scalable numerical models that can be compared to laboratory experiments. Traditional global assumptions of low variance, ergodicity, single correlation scale, stationarity, and the like are avoided through the use of a flexible Lagrangian numerical, not analytical, framework, which allows assumptions to be local. A method of calculating grid-block upscaled dispersivities is presented. Computational results are obtained for a heterogeneous tank experiment, with reasonable behavior.