Automated Impedance Tomography for Monitoring Permeable Reactive Barrier Health
The objective of this research was the development of an autonomous, automated electrical geophysical monitoring system which allows for near real-time assessment of Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) health and aging and which provides this assessment through a web-based interface to site operators, owners and regulatory agencies. Field studies were performed at four existing PRB sites; (1) a uranium tailing site near Monticello, Utah, (2) the DOE complex at Kansas City, Missouri, (3) the Denver Federal Center in Denver, Colorado and (4) the Asarco Smelter site in East Helena, Montana. Preliminary surface data over the PRB sites were collected (in December, 2005). After the initial round of data collection, the plan was modified to include studies inside the barriers in order to better understand barrier aging processes. In September 2006 an autonomous data collection system was designed and installed at the EPA PRB and the electrode setups in the barrier were revised and three new vertical electrode arrays were placed in dedicated boreholes which were in direct contact with the PRB material. Final data were collected at the Kansas City, Denver and Monticello, Utah PRB sites in the fall of 2007. At the Asarco Smelter site in East Helena, Montana, nearly continuous data was collected by the autonomous monitoring system from June 2006 to November 2007. This data provided us with a picture of the evolution of the barrier, enabling us to examine barrier changes more precisely and determine whether these changes are due to installation issues or are normal barrier aging. Two rounds of laboratory experiments were carried out during the project. We conducted column experiments to investigate the effect of mineralogy on the electrical signatures resulting from iron corrosion and mineral precipitation in zero valent iron (ZVI) columns. In the second round of laboratory experiments we observed the electrical response from simulation of actual field PRBs at two sites: the Kansas City barrier and the East Helena barrier. As these sites are also used for our field monitoring efforts, this allowed for a comparison between field and laboratory. In column studies with high concentrations of calcium and carbonate/bicarbonate, we observed that the increase of electrical resistivity and decrease of polarization magnitude is significant and is mainly controlled by the precipitation of calcium carbonates. In general, the electrical properties of all of the barriers studied follow a pattern. New barriers are fairly resistive with in-situ conductivity only a few times background (outside the barrier) values. Older barriers get increasingly conductive, with failed barriers showing values of over 100 S/m. The induced polarization response is more complicated. Chargeability values increase over time for young barriers, are largest for healthy barriers in the middle of their lifespan, and decrease as the barrier ages These results suggest that normalized IP appears promising as a measure of barrier age.
- Research Organization:
- Multi-Phase Technologies, LLC
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science and Technology (EM-50)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-04ER84013
- OSTI ID:
- 958215
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/84013-1 Final Report
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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