10icud Paper Template

Local-scale heterogeneity in natural aquifers plays a key role in solute mixing and chemical reactions. The incorporation of this scale of heterogeneity in traditional grid-based methods is difficult because of large computational costs and because of their poor accuracy in the advective-dominated transport found in most practical problems. Particle methods are an attractive alternative to simulate this kind of problem because of their natural ability to both simulate solute advection, and to adapt to irregular geometries and flow conditions, as well as their relatively low demand of computational power. However, it is difficult to incorporate and resolve solute mixing and dilution in traditional particle methods. In this paper we explore the use of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) methods to simulate solute transport in heterogeneous geological formations. SPH methods are able to handle solute mixing and dilution in a natural way. In this article we review some of the important characteristics of the method and we evaluate its advantages and disadvantages for the simulation of solute transport that incorporates local-scale mixing.