Hot Water Drilling in Antarctic Firn, and Freezing Rates in Water-Filled Boreholes

Abstract

Hot water drilling systems are suitable for applications in which the objective is to gain rapid access to a glacier, ice sheet or ice shelf for seismic shooting, installing temperature sensors, access hole studies or retrieving stuck core drills. The Ross Ice Shelf Project (RISP) hot water drilling at J-9 showed that the decrease in water temperature at the nozzle was 1 C/30 m (1.8 F/100 ft) or depth. The boiler was rated at 2.5 million watts. It produced 320 l/m of water heated from 2 C to 98 C (1.75 million watts). The success of a smaller hot water system (150 kW) used by PICO in 1979-80 at Dome C, Antarctica, in ambient temperatures of -40 C illustrated the speed and reliability possible under extreme environmental conditions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1984
Accession Number
ADP004815

Entities

People

  • Bruce R. Koci

Organizations

  • University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Back Pressure
  • Depth
  • Detectors
  • Diameters
  • Drilling
  • Drills
  • Freezing
  • Glaciers
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transfer
  • High Altitude
  • Hot Water
  • Ice
  • New York
  • United States
  • Water
  • Water Wells

Fields of Study

  • Engineering
  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Polar and Arctic Studies
  • Thermal Physics or Thermal Science.