Moisture movement in nonisothermal deformable media

Thesis/Dissertation · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:5995626

Edgar, T V

Many inactive uranium mill tailings impoundments currently exist in the United States. One facet of the Department of Energy's reclamation plan for these sites is to enclose the impoundments with a cover. Placement of any cover material could cause the water content of the tailings to change due to changes in the evaporation and infiltration rates. This report investigates the effects of changing mechanical and fluid stresses on deformable media. A set of one dimensional equilibrium and balance equations for both two and three phase soils are developed based on a coordinate system which is defined by the soil solids. A finite difference model was developed to solve the three coupled nonlinear partial differential equations which permits the study of the effects of liquid, gas and heat flows on the deformation of the soil. A series of example problems were selected to analyze the effects of varying the soil and environmental parameters. Four significant cases were: (1) Drainage of an originally saturated soil, (2) Consolidation of a partially saturated soil due to placement of a cover, (3) the effect of a low permeability layer on drainage, and (4) the effects of soil drying and crusting on evaporation.

• Research Organization: Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5995626
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
DRAINAGE
EVAPORATION
FEED MATERIALS PLANTS
FLUID MECHANICS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
LAND RECLAMATION
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
MILL TAILINGS
MINES
MOISTURE
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SOILS
SOLID WASTES
STRESSES
TAILINGS
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
URANIUM MINES
WASTES