Dispersion in Rivers as Related to Storage Zones

Abstract

Longitudinal dispersion is considered as simple stochastic process in which a particle travels random time periods at constant velocity, with travel periods separated by random time periods during which the particle is trapped in storage zones. The average number per unit time of entries into storage is considered to be a function of time. The resulting model is a nonhomogeneous compound Poisson process defined by three parameters. Methods for estimating the parameters are given, and predicted concentration distributions are shown to agree reasonably well with observed field data.