Contaminated groundwater remediation design using simulation, optimization, and sensitivity theory: 2. Analysis of a field site

An optimization approach to designing contaminated groundwater aquifer remediation systems is described and used to analyze alternate hypothetical remediation strategies at a Superfund site in Woburn, Massachusetts. The methodology combines two‐dimensional convective‐dispersive transport simulation, nonlinear optimization, and sensitivity theory. Remediation strategies are generated based on different design criteria as represented by two alternate optimization formulations. It is demonstrated that field scale simulation models can be successfully incorporated into a nonlinear optimization framework to solve important design problems. Through the use of sensitivity theory for the transport simulation model it is possible to solve field scale problems with at least an order of magnitude less computational effort than when using perturbation methods.