Tracking the Presence of Lead Contaminant in Water using Geophysical Model

Abstract

Dielectric mixing model has been successfully employed to characterize the presence of lead in water-logged porous media, contaminated by lead at different temperatures and concentrations. This work has demonstrated the influence of temperature and concentration of lead on the bulk relative permittivity (ԑb) of lead-water system in porous media. Generally, the bulk relative permittivity of the lead-water-soil system, ԑb, decreases with rising temperature and the least value of ԑb was obtained in this work at 30oC while the highest ԑb was obtained at 20oC. It is visible from the combined plot that the bulk permittivity, ԑb, of lead-water system decreases as the lead concentration increases. The ԑb is highest at lead volume fraction of 0.05. This is closely followed by that at 0.01 and so on, while the least ԑb occurs at lead volume fraction of 0.1. The reason for this is owing to the fact that as the fraction of lead increases, that of water decreases. This work is important in the monitoring of water quality and contamination by lead in the subsurface.