Potential Applications of Phase Change Materials to Extend the Winter Construction Time of Earth-Rock Dam in Cold Regions
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 8
Abstract
During earth-rock dam construction, temperature control to reduce the freeze–thaw impact on core-wall clay in cold regions is difficult. To address this challenge, this research developed a phase change material (PCM) incorporated into clay (PCM-clay) to improve the construction efficiency in a cold period. In the preparation of PCM-clay, considerable latent heat was stored by harvesting thermal energy from the environment, which was used for temperature control to extend the winter construction time. The feasibility of PCM-clay as core-wall clay was verified by an analysis of working performance. The results indicate that low-content PCM-clay (7%) is able to protect core-wall clay from freeze–thaw damage in a simulated environment (minimum ) in a 1-day cycle. The working performance (e.g., shear strength and impermeability) supports that PCM-clay is a promising solution for temperature control of core-wall clay during earth-rock dam construction in cold regions.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51979189), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFC0406903).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33 • Issue 8 • August 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 17, 2020
Accepted: Dec 29, 2020
Published online: May 26, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Oct 26, 2021
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