How the Contaminant Transport Module Documentation is Organized

The portion of the Help file describing the Contaminant Transport Module is divided into the following sections:

• Getting Started with the Contaminant Transport Module. The remainder of this section of this chapter discusses the information required for you to get started using the GoldSim Contaminant Transport Module, specifically, 1) suggestions for learning how to use the module; and 2) instructions for activating the module.
• Contaminant Transport Module Overview. This section provides an overview of the features and capabilities of the Contaminant Transport Module, summarizes the specialized contaminant transport elements, and outlines the steps required to build a contaminant transport model in GoldSim.
• Species and Media. This section describes how you define the basic building blocks of a contaminant transport simulation: 1) the contaminant species The chemical (or non-chemical, such as bacterial or viral) constituents that are stored and transported through an environmental system in a contaminant transport model. In GoldSim, the Species element defines all of the contaminant species being simulated (and their properties). which are to be simulated; and 2) the environmental media Materials (such as water, sand, clay, air) that constitute (are contained within) transport pathways. GoldSim provides two types of elements for defining media: Fluids and Solids. (e.g., water, soil) in which these species are transported and stored.
• Transport Pathways. This section describes the fundamental component of a contaminant transport simulation, the transport pathway. A contaminant transport model is constructed by defining multiple transport pathways and linking them together into an interconnected network.
• Contaminant Sources. This section describes how you can introduce mass into a transport pathway Physical components or compartments through which contaminant species can move and/or be stored, such as aquifers, lakes, sediments, surface soil and the atmosphere. GoldSim provides four different elements for simulating pathways. network by defining one or more "sources", whose contaminant release rates are a function of a variety of user-defined properties.
• Receptors. This section describes how concentrations in various media within transport pathways can be converted to impacts (e.g., health risk, dose) to specified receptor A group (usually of people) that could potentially receive impacts from contaminants in the environment. In GoldSim, a Receptor is an element that converts contaminant concentrations in the environment to impacts to a receptor group. groups (e.g., adults, children, farmers).
• Advanced Modeling Concepts. This section discusses a number of advanced contaminant transport topics, and will be of particular interest to experienced modelers. It includes discussions of modeling complex (high-order) chemical reactions, nonlinear chemical partitioning , spatial variability, and the dynamic linking of GoldSim to external codes (e.g., flow models, geochemical equilibrium models).

These sections describe what the program can do and how you make the program work. Many users, however, will also want to understand how the program carries out the calculations (i.e., what equations are being solved, what are the basic assumptions inherent in these equations, and what numerical techniques are being used to solve the equations). This information (as well as other details) are provided in the technical appendices to the Contaminant Transport Module User's Guide:

• Appendix A: Building a Contaminant Transport Model. This appendix provides a very brief introduction to the overall approach one should take in order to create a contaminant transport model in GoldSim. It is primarily intended for novice contaminant transport modelers.
• Appendix B: Details of Pathway Computations. This appendix presents the theoretical basis and mathematical details of the transport pathways.
• Appendix C: Implementing External (DLL) Pathways. This appendix provides instructions for those users who wish to directly link external contaminant transport codes into a GoldSim transport pathway network.
• Appendix D: Network Pathway File Format. This appendix describes the file format which can be used to import data from a discrete fracture network model into a specialized pathway in GoldSim that allows you to simulate complex pathways in fractured rock.
• Appendix E: Details of Source Computations. This appendix presents the theoretical basis and mathematical details of the contaminant sources.

These appendices are not included in this Help system. They are only included in the User's Guide (a PDF document), which is available via the link above. The Contaminant Transport Module User’s Guide contains all of the contents of the Help file, along with the Technical Appendices (in book form).