Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2024.125379
Lizenz creative commons licence
Titel (primär) The relevance of two-phase flow in the thermo-hydro-mechanical evolution of clay formations exposed to high temperatures by heat-emitting waste
Autor Buchwald, J. ORCID logo ; Grunwald, N.; Wang, W. ORCID logo ; Shao, H.; Kolditz, O. ORCID logo ; Nagel, T.
Quelle Applied Thermal Engineering
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
Department ENVINF
Band/Volume 264
Seite von art. 125379
Sprache englisch
Topic T8 Georesources
T5 Future Landscapes
Keywords Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes; Non-isothermal two-component two-phase flow; Non-isothermal; Richards equation; Nuclear waste disposal; OpenGeoSys
Abstract We compare two-phase flow and Richards flow implementations in OpenGeoSys-6 to model the thermo-hydro-mechanical evolution of heat-emitting waste in claystone formations. Our quasi-1D example is based on the material sequence and domain properties observed in the FE experiment at the Mt. Terri underground research lab in Switzerland. We examine the validity of the Richards assumption by comparing a thermo-hydro-mechanically (THM) coupled Richards model against two THM-coupled two-phase flow-based models, one where the gas-pressure is constrained to atmospheric pressure and one unconstrained model. The model comparison was conducted with saturation-dependent permeability models at temperatures up to about 200 °C. Additionally, we consider the impact of two different vapor diffusion models -- a gas pressure independent empirical relationship versus the original De Vries model, which becomes relevant if gas pressure buildup is significant. Our results show excellent agreement between the two models for maximum temperatures around 100 °C. Even at higher temperatures, above 150 °C, we observe good agreement, which improves significantly with increasing distance from the heater. Even for the highest heat-power where both approaches differ significantly in the high-temperature regions, acceptable agreement can be reached outside those regions, i.e. a couple of tens of centimeters away from the heater, but still in the bentonite barrier domain.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=29775
Buchwald, J., Grunwald, N., Wang, W., Shao, H., Kolditz, O., Nagel, T. (2025):
The relevance of two-phase flow in the thermo-hydro-mechanical evolution of clay formations exposed to high temperatures by heat-emitting waste
Appl. Therm. Eng. 264 , art. 125379 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2024.125379