Articles | Volume 26, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1615-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1615-2022
Research article
 | 
25 Mar 2022
Research article |  | 25 Mar 2022

Stepping beyond perfectly mixed conditions in soil hydrological modelling using a Lagrangian approach

Alexander Sternagel, Ralf Loritz, Brian Berkowitz, and Erwin Zehe

Model code and software

KIT-HYD/last-model: v0.1.1 (v0.1.1) A. Sternagel https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6375769

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Short summary
We present a (physically based) Lagrangian approach to simulate diffusive mixing processes on the pore scale beyond perfectly mixed conditions. Results show the feasibility of the approach for reproducing measured mixing times and concentrations of isotopes over pore sizes and that typical shapes of breakthrough curves (normally associated with non-uniform transport in heterogeneous soils) may also occur as a result of imperfect subscale mixing in a macroscopically homogeneous soil matrix.