Title:
Analysis of unsaturated materials hydration incorporating the effect of thermo-osmotic flow

dc.contributor.author Sanchez, Marcelo
dc.contributor.author Arson, Chloé
dc.contributor.author Gens, Antonio
dc.contributor.author Aponte, Fernando
dc.contributor.corporatename Texas A & M University. Department of Civil Engineering en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename Georgia Institute of Technology. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). Spain en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2016-06-06T19:44:04Z
dc.date.available 2016-06-06T19:44:04Z
dc.date.issued 2015-10
dc.description © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. en_US
dc.description DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gete.2016.05.001
dc.description.abstract The geological disposal of a high level radioactive waste relies in a system composed of engineered and geological barriers. The soils and rocks involved in the design of this type of solution are generally initially unsaturated and subject to complex thermal, hydraulic and mechanical (THM) coupled phenomena triggered by the simultaneous heating and hydration of the barrier materials under confined conditions. Mathematical THM formulations are typically used to analyze the behavior and long term performance of the barriers system. These types of formulations generally do not include some coupled processes, for example thermo-osmosis (i.e. the movement of liquid water induced by gradient of temperature), because they are considered not significant when compared against the main or direct processes (e.g., Darcy’s, Fourier’s and Fick’s laws). In this work, the potential effects of thermo-osmotic phenomenon is studied in detail. Typical flow equations are modified to include thermo-osmotic flows and then they are implemented in numerical simulators. Two case studies are analyzed. The first one focuses on a simple and already proposed model to study the behavior of a geological barrier for nuclear waste when subjected to heating and hydration. The other case corresponds to the study of an engineered clay barrier material in the laboratory subjected to hydraulic and thermal gradients similar to the ones expected in real repository conditions. In both cases the analyses with and without thermo-osmotic flows are compared. From these comparisons it is observed that the effect of thermo-osmosis can be quite significant. Thermo-osmotic effects also assisted to explain the apparent low wetting observed in the hydration of a clayey barrier material. en_US
dc.embargo.terms null en_US
dc.identifier.citation Sanchez, M., et al. "Analysis of unsaturated materials hydration incorporating the effect of thermo-osmotic flow". Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment (2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gete.2016.05.001 en_US
dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gete.2016.05.001
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/55103
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Thermo-osmotic flows en_US
dc.subject Unsaturated materials en_US
dc.subject THM coupled phenomena en_US
dc.subject Compacted expansive clays en_US
dc.subject Nuclear waste disposal en_US
dc.subject Numerical modeling en_US
dc.title Analysis of unsaturated materials hydration incorporating the effect of thermo-osmotic flow en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Post-print
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.author Arson, Chloé
local.contributor.corporatename School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
relation.isAuthorOfPublication ce5325f0-830f-4636-bc90-7527fd99005b
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 88639fad-d3ae-4867-9e7a-7c9e6d2ecc7c
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
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