Identification of diffusive transport properties of poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels from reservoir test

In this paper the identification of diffusion coefficient, retardation factor and surface distribution coefficient for selected salts in poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels is performed. The identification of the transport parameters is based on the previously developed inverse problem technique using experimental data from the reservoir test and the solution of the diffusive transport equation with linear equilibrium sorption. The estimated values of diffusion coefficient are: for physiological fluid (6.30 ± 0.10) × 10− 10 m2/s, for 1 M NaCl (6.42 ± 0.39) × 10− 10 m2/s, and for 1 M KCl (7.94 ± 0.38) × 10− 10 m2/s. The retardation factor for all tested materials and salts is equal or close to one. The average value of the effective surface distribution coefficient is equal to 0.5.