Imperial College London
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ProfessorCatherineO'Sullivan

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Professor of Particulate Soil Mechanics
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6117cath.osullivan Website

 
 
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Location

 

501Skempton BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@inproceedings{Schnaider:2021,
author = {Schnaider, Bortolotto M and Taborda, DMG and O'Sullivan, C},
pages = {5017--5022},
publisher = {2022 Australian Geomechanics Society},
title = {Thermal effects on the hydraulic conductivity of a granular geomaterial},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/105030},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Geotechnical challenges arising from thermal loading are associated with many engineering applications such as ground source energy systems (5-40) and nuclear waste disposal (in excess of 100). The effects of temperature on soils have been the subject of limited research, particularly in terms of the fundamental characterisation of the non-isothermal behaviour of granular geomaterials. This study describes challenges associated with determining the hydraulic conductivity (k_) of such materials at different temperatures using a bespoke temperature-controlled triaxial apparatus. A methodology is proposed for interpreting thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) tests on isotropically consolidated specimens and is applied to data obtained for a uniform sand. It is shown that the intrinsic head losses of the system need to be minimised in order to obtain reliable measurements; this requires a detailed calibration procedure. The developed approach is used to determine the hydraulic conductivity at ambient temperature and at 40, showing that the increase in k_ with temperature is mostly due to the reduction in the viscosity of water. A detailed analysis of the volumetric response of the sample during heating is also carried out.
AU  - Schnaider,Bortolotto M
AU  - Taborda,DMG
AU  - O'Sullivan,C
EP  - 5022
PB  - 2022 Australian Geomechanics Society
PY  - 2021///
SP  - 5017
TI  - Thermal effects on the hydraulic conductivity of a granular geomaterial
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/105030
ER  -
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