Noble Gas Transport in Variably Saturated Rock Cores
EMSL Project ID
50117
Abstract
Building and refining the capability to detect and locate suspected subsurface nuclear explosions are part of United States' security priorities (Broome et al., 2016). To improve understanding of subsurface flow and transport of gas associated with these events, the US Department of Energy is supporting nonproliferation projects such as UNESE (Underground Nuclear Explosion Signatures Experiment) and Low Yield Nuclear Monitoring (LYNM). An important aspect of these projects is to develop numerical simulators for noble gas migration that are tested against laboratory and field data. Although subsurface flow and transport models have been utilized in various ways to address this problem in the past, experimental data under pertinent pressure and temperature conditions are scarce. As an example, diffusion coefficients for variable water saturations have not been determined experimentally due to challenges related to the low viscosity of gas. The major goals of this proposal are to design, assemble, and test a capability allowing for quantification of noble gas transport in consolidated rock cores. The capability includes the combined use of a high-pressure and -temperature core holder and X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) to determine critical transport parameters in selected consolidated rock cores. After establishing the capability, experiments will be conducted to demonstrate the utility for a sandstone and a limestone rock core. The experiments will be designed and simulated with the STOMP simulator (White and Oostrom, 2006).
Project Details
Start Date
2017-11-28
End Date
2018-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator