Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T07:32:43.899Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thermodynamically Coupled Mass Transport Processes in a Saturated Clay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

C. L. Carnahan
C. L. Carnahan*
Affiliation:
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720
Get access

Abstract

Gradients of temperature, pressure, and fluid composition in saturated clays give rise to coupled transport processes (thermal and chemical osmosis, thermal diffusion, ultrafiltration) in addition to the direct processes (advection and diffusion). One-dimensional transport of water and a solute in a saturated clay subjected to mild gradients of temperature and pressure was simulated numerically. When full coupling was accounted for, volume flux (specific discharge) was controlled by thermal osmosis and chemical osmosis. The two coupled fluxes were oppositely directed, producing a point of stagnation within the clay column. Solute flows were dominated by diffusion, chemical osmosis, and thermal osmosis. Chemical osmosis produced a significant flux of solute directed against the gradient of solute concentration; this effect reduced solute concentrations relative to the case without coupling. Predictions of mass transport in clays at nuclear waste repositories could be significantly in error if coupled transport processes are not accounted for.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 44: Symposium N – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management VIII , 1984 , 491
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Milne, I. H., McKelvey, J. G., and Trump, R. P., Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 49, 103–105 (1964).Google Scholar
2. Young, A. and Low, P. F., Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 49, 1004–1007 (1965).Google Scholar
3. Kemper, W. D. and Rollins, J. B., Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. Proc. 30, 529–534 (1966).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Elrick, D. E., Smiles, D. E., Baumgartner, N., and Groenevelt, P. H., Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J. 40, 490–491 (1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. Groenevelt, P. H. and Elrick, D. E., Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J. 40, 820–823 (1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6. Groenevelt, P. H., Elrick, D. E., and Blom, T. J. M., Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J. 42, 671–674 (1978).Google Scholar
7. Marine, I. W. and Fritz, S. J., Water Resour. Res. 17, 73–82 (1981).Google Scholar
8. Carnahan, C. L., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 26, 1023–1030 (1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Letey, J. and Kemper, W. D., Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. Proc. 33, 25–29 (1969).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10. Srivastava, R. C. and Avasthi, P. K., J. Hydrology 24, 111–120 (1975).Google Scholar
11. Thornton, E. C. and Seyfried, W. E., Science 220, 1156–1158 (1983).Google Scholar
12. Hodges, F. N., in: Engineered Barrier Development for a Nuclear Waste Repository in Basalt: An Integration of Current Knowledge, Report RHO-BWI-ST-7, principal author M. J. Smith (Rockwell Hanford Operations 1980) pp. 2–105–2–133.Google Scholar
13. Wang, J. S. Y., Mangold, D. C., and Tsang, C. F., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 15, 531–538 (1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14. Katchalsky, A. and Curran, P. F., Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics in Biophysics (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1967) p. 122.Google Scholar