Large-scale pore network and continuum simulations of solute longitudinal dispersivity of a saturated sand column

•A series of column transport experiments were performed under saturated condition to analyse solute breakthrough curves at different travel distances.•Statistical properties of a representative image-based pore network were used to generate an extremely large pore network model having the same size as the sand column.•Fluid flow and solute transport were simulated for both the continuum and the pore scale to reproduce and analyse the solute breakthrough curves.