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- Dessirier, Benoît, 1987-
(författare)
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Numerical modeling of groundwater and air flow between compacted bentonite and fractured crystalline rock
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The geological repository for final storage of spent nuclear fuel, envisioned by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Management Company (SKB), relies on several barriers: copper canisters deposited in holes in the floor of underground tunnels in deep bedrock, embedded in a buffer of compacted bentonite. The initially unsaturated buffer would take up water from the surrounding rock mass and swell to seal any potential gap. This initial two-phase (gas and liquid) regime with two components (air and water) may impact the final density, swelling pressure and biogeochemical conditions in the buffer. A main objective of this work is to identify factors and mechanisms that govern deposition hole inflow and bentonite wetting under the prevailing two-phase flow conditions in sparsely fractured bedrock. For this purpose, we use the numerical code TOUGH2 to perform two-phase flow simulations, conditioned by a companion field experiment (the Bentonite Rock Interaction Experiment or BRIE) performed in a 417 m deep tunnel of the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory in southeastern Sweden. The models predict a significant de-saturation of the rock wall, which was confirmed by field data. To predict the early buffer wetting rates and patterns, the position of local flowing fractures and estimates of local rock matrix permeability appear more important than the total open hole groundwater inflow. A global sensitivity analysis showed that the buffer wetting time and the persistence of unsaturated conditions over extended periods of time in the rock depend primarily on the local fracture positions, rock matrix permeability, ventilation conditions in the tunnel and pressure far in the rock. Dismantling photographs from BRIE were used to reconstruct a fine-scale snapshot of saturation at the bentonite/rock interface, showing tremendous spatial variability. The high level of heterogeneity in the rock generates complex two-phase flow phenomena (air trapping, dissolution), which need to be accounted for in buffer design and rock suitability criteria. In particular, results suggest that uncertainties regarding two-phase flow behavior are relatively high close to residual air saturation, which may also have important implications for other applications involving two-phase flows, such as geological storage of carbon dioxide.
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| 3. |
- Pietroń, Jan, 1987-
(författare)
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Sediment transport from source to sink in the Lake Baikal basin : Impacts of hydroclimatic change and mining
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Different magnitude, intensity and timing of precipitation can impact runoff, hillslope erosion and transport of sediment along river channels. Human activities, such as dam construction and surface mining can also considerably influence transport of sediment and sediment-bound contaminants. Many river basins of the world are currently subject to changes in climate at the same time as pressures from other human activities increase. However, because there are often complex interactions between such multiple drivers of change, it is challenging to understand and quantify contributions of individual drivers, which is needed in predictive modelling of future sediment and contaminant flows. This thesis considers sediment transport in the Lake Baikal basin, which is hydrologically dominated by the transboundary Selenga River of Russia and Mongolia. The Selenga River basin is, for instance, subject to climate change and increasing pressures from mining, but process complexity is reduced by the fact that the river basin is one of few large basins in the world that still is essentially undammed and unregulated. A combination of field measurement campaigns and modelling methods are used in this thesis, with the aim to: (i) identify historical hydroclimatic trends and their possible causes, (ii) analyse the spatial variability of riverine sediment loading in the mining affected areas, and (iii) investigate sediment transport and storage processes within river channels and in river deltas. Results show that, during the period 1938-2009, the annual maximum daily flow in the Selenga River basin has decreased, as well as the annual number of high flow events, whereas the annual minimum daily flow has increased. These changes in discharge characteristics are consistent with expected impacts of basin-scale permafrost thaw. Both field observations and modelling results show that changes in magnitude and number of high-flow events can considerably influence the transport of bed sediment. In addition, the average discharge has decreased in the past 20 years due to an extended drought. Under conditions of low flow, metal-enriched sediment from mining areas was observed to dominate the river water. If discharge will continue to decrease in the Selenga River (or other mining-impacted rivers of the world), further increases in riverine metal concentrations may hence be one of the consequences. Furthermore, under current conditions of extended drought, less sediment may have been distributed over the floodplain wetlands in the Selenga River delta. Present estimates, however, show that sediment can still be transported to, and deposited within, the banks and water bodies located in the backwater zone of the Selenga River delta. This can aid bank and levee stabilization, support the development of wetlands and foster net sedimentation.
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