These parallel computers link processors or individual workstations together to increase computational power. Not all modeling problems would benefit from high-performance computing, but one of the key benefits of research in this area is that the lessons learned can provide lessons in other areas. These serve to illustrate both the advantages and the difficulties in using high-performance computing for environmental problems. Subsurface Heterogeneity and Groundwater Remediation Fig 2. Various remediation strategies being analyzed by ORNL researchers using high-performance computing.
Geologic heterogeneity is one of the most important factors affecting groundwater remediation.
On the other hand, regions of high permeability can shorten residence times for bacteria, preventing them from effectively degrading the contaminants. These groundwater codes are now being used to study the impact of soil heterogeneity on various remediation strategies. The heterogeneous permeability field was generated with a geostatistical simulator using sparse field data obtained from a sandy aquifer in New England. The extraction well was placed at the vertically averaged concentration weighted centroid of the plume. One of the most effective ways of reducing remediation costs is to improve decision making in the presence of uncertainty.