One-dimensional Transport Models: Linking Parameters to Hydrodynamic Variables and to Reach Morphology

In the present paper three of the main one-dimensional transport models (ADE, ADEK, OTIS) are calibrated against an extensive database of concentration-time curves, collected during a long experimental survey with conservative tracers. All the data refer to slug-injections carried out under steady flow conditions into a series of stream reaches, covering a wide range of different morphologies and flow regimes. Therefore the models are set with proper impulsive boundary conditions in order to find their best-fitting solution on the experimental data. The optimum parameters are then analyzed, reach by reach, as a function of the main hydrodynamic variables, comparing the different values of the same parameter used by the three models. Then the comparison of the various reaches assesses the relative importance of the various transport processes according to their different morphology.