Mountain scale modeling of transient, coupled gas flow, heat transfer and carbon-14 migration
- Disposal Safety, Inc., Washington, DC (United States)
We simulate mountain-scale coupled heat transfer and gas flow at Yucca Mountain. A coupled rock-gas flow and heat transfer model, TGIF2, is used to simulate mountain-scale two-dimensional transient heat transfer and gas flow. The model is first verified against an analytical solution for the problem of an infinite horizontal layer of fluid heated from below. Our numerical results match very well with the analytical solution. Then, we obtain transient temperature and gas flow distributions inside the mountain. These distributions are used by a transient semianalytical particle tracker to obtain carbon-14 travel times for particles starting at different locations within the repository. Assuming that the repository is filled with 30-year-old waste at an initial areal power density of 57 kw/acre, we find that repository temperatures remain above 60{degrees}C for more than 10,000 years. Carbon-14 travel times to the surface are mostly less than 1000 years, for particles starting at any time within the first 10,000 years.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 60782
- Report Number(s):
- SAND--93-7106C; CONF-9309228--13; ON: DE95003351
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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