Geo-Congress 2020
Experimental Investigation of Coupled Thermo-Hydraulic Properties of Glacial Tills
Publication: Geo-Congress 2020: Geo-Systems, Sustainability, Geoenvironmental Engineering, and Unsaturated Soil Mechanics (GSP 319)
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on experimental investigation of the effect of temperature on coupled thermo-hydraulic properties of glacial tills. During operation of a geothermal system, geomaterials are subjected to thermal gradients that may significantly affect the hydraulic properties. An accurate characterization of these properties under representative field conditions is essential to provide input parameters for an efficient design. Therefore, this study focuses on the effect of temperature on hydraulic properties of glacial tills. Core samples at different depths were collected from a borehole for a planned geothermal site on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. A core flooding apparatus was used to perform experiments on saturated samples to characterize hydraulic properties of glacial tills at different temperatures and representative in situ stresses. The results revealed that the intrinsic permeability and hydraulic conductivity significantly increased with increasing temperatures. The increase was more pronounced at lower lateral stresses. An accurate characterization of coupled thermo-hydraulic properties of glacial tills will allow to the development of constitutive relationships for saturated geomaterials.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding from “Campus as a Living Lab” program of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) and iSEE and Facilities and Services Carbon Credit Sales Fund at University at Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are greatly appreciated. The opinions are those of the authors alone and do not reflect those of the sponsors.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2020: Geo-Systems, Sustainability, Geoenvironmental Engineering, and Unsaturated Soil Mechanics (GSP 319)
Pages: 1 - 10
Editors: James P. Hambleton, Ph.D., Northwestern University, Roman Makhnenko, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Aaron S. Budge, Ph.D., Minnesota State University, Mankato
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8282-7
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Feb 21, 2020
Published in print: Feb 21, 2020
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Coupling
- Energy engineering
- Energy sources (by type)
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering mechanics
- Geomaterials
- Geotechnical engineering
- Glacial till
- Hydraulic engineering
- Hydraulic properties
- Lateral stress
- Measurement (by type)
- Renewable energy
- River engineering
- Sediment
- Stress (by type)
- Structural analysis
- Structural engineering
- Structural members
- Structural systems
- Temperature effects
- Temperature measurement
- Thermal power
- Thermal properties
- Thermodynamics
- Water and water resources
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