Air sparging analysis through the continuum approach

Air-sparging refers to the injection of air below the groundwater table. Air-sparging can facilitate the volatilization of organic pollutants or form a hydraulic barrier for the remediation or confinement of polluted groundwater. However, evaluating and modeling the flow and distribution of air is limited by the complicated physics of unstable multiphase flow. These complexities drive researchers to search for empirical relations and rules of thumb to design air-sparging systems.

Yet, despite these complexities, good agreement has been found when comparing analytical solutions of the classical flow physics' steady air injection problem to experimental results. Building on these results, adjusted analytical solutions and a phase decoupling framework can be set as a fast, robust, and parameters-parsimonious method for the design of air injection systems.