Modelling bioremediation of polluted soils in unsaturated condition and its effect on the soil hydraulic properties
We study the unsaturated flow of an incompressible liquid carrying a bacterial population through a porous medium contaminated with some pollutant. The biomass grows feeding on the pollutant and affecting at the same time all the physics of the flow. We formulate a mathematical model in a one-dimensional setting and we prove an existence theorem for it. The so-called fluid media scaling approach, often used in the literature, is discussed and its limitations are pointed out on the basis of a specific...