| The goal of this project was two fold. The first experimentally evaluated recently postulated correlations between physical heterogeneity and virus transport parameters and, the second further examined the influence of geochemical heterogeneity on the controls governing virus transports in porous media.; The attainment of these goals was achieved by testing the hypothesis that the collision frequency, or single collector efficiency would have a negative linear relationship with the natural logarithm of the hydraulic conductivity of granular media and also, that the collision efficiency would not have a correlation with the natural logarithm of the hydraulic conductivity with carefully controlled laboratory column studies.; The flow-through column experiments evaluated the effect of grain size, ionic strength, and inadvertently pH on the transport of virus, specifically PRD1, in porous media. Grain size varied from 0.14 mm--1.55 mm in diameter, the ionic strengths used were 0.1 M MgCl2, 0.1 M NaCl, 10-3 M NaCl, and 10-4 M NaCl.; A negative linear relationship was found in the collision efficiency as a function of grain size. The collision efficiency showed a positive relationship as a function of grain size. |
