Demonstration of an Artificial Frozen Barrier

Abstract

Groundwater is the main source of drinking water for the majority of the U.S. population. Unfortunately, groundwater is susceptible to contamination from major sources, such as storage tanks, hazardous waste sites, landfills, and septic systems. Polluted groundwater can endanger public health or threaten the environment. Standard containment technologies include slurry walls, reactive barriers, sheet piling, and grouting. Another less common technique is freezing the contaminants in situ. The objective of this study is to create a frozen soil barrier using thermosyphons. The first phase of this study is presented in this report and investigated how long it takes for the rate of bulk soil freezing to complete the frozen soil barrier. At this installation, freezing to closure occurred after about 42 days and the barrier was 1 m thick after approximately 48 days. The average electricity usage was 132 kWh/day.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA571582

Entities

People

  • A. M. Wagner
  • Edward Yarmak Jr.

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Temperature
  • Cold Regions
  • Conductivity
  • Contamination
  • Electricity
  • Engineering
  • Environmental Pollutants
  • Environmental Protection
  • Fluids
  • Freezing
  • Groundwater
  • Hazardous Waste
  • Hazardous Waste Sites
  • Pipes
  • Public Health
  • Standards
  • Water

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Geotechnical Engineering.
  • Groundwater Contamination Remediation.