Estimation of host rock thermal conductivities using thetemperature data from the drift-scale test at Yucca Mountain,Nevada

Journal Article · Tue Nov 25 04:00:00 EST 2003 · Water Resources Research

OSTI ID:929070

Mukhopadhyay, Sumitra; Tsang, Y W

A large volume of temperature data has been collected from a very large, underground heater test, the Drift Scale Test (DST) at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The DST was designed to obtain thermal, hydrological, mechanical, and chemical (THMC) data in the unsaturated fractured rock of Yucca Mountain. Sophisticated numerical models have been developed to analyze the collected THMC data. In these analyses, thermal conductivities measured from core samples have been used as input parameters to the model. However, it was not known whether these core measurements represented the true field-scale thermal conductivity of the host rock. Realizing these difficulties, elaborate, computationally intensive geostatistical simulations have also been performed to obtain field-scale thermal conductivity of the host rock from the core measurements. In this paper, we use the temperature data from the DST as the input (instead of the measured core-scale thermal conductivity values) to develop an estimate of the field-scale thermal conductivity values. Assuming a conductive thermal regime, we develop an analytical solution for the temperature rise in the host rock of the DST; and using a nonlinear fitting routine, we obtain a best-fit estimate of field-scale thermal conductivity for the DST host rock. The temperature data collected from the DST shows clear evidence of two distinct thermal regimes: a zone below boiling (wet) and a zone above boiling (dry). We obtain estimates of thermal conductivity for both the wet and dry zones. We also analyze the sensitivity of these estimates to the input heating power of the DST.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Civilian Radioactive WasteManagement
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 929070
• Report Number(s): LBNL--54102; BnR: 820201000
• Journal Information: Water Resources Research, Journal Name: Water Resources Research Vol. 43; ISSN WRERAQ; ISSN 0043-1397
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
BOILING
HEATERS
HEATING
SENSITIVITY
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
YUCCA MOUNTAIN