THERMO project

These programs are able to model the geological systems soil/rock-aqueous solution systems that is the concentration and distribution of the thermodynamically stable species can be determined based on the total concentrations of the components and the parameters just mentioned. In addition, the programs can also be used to estimate thermodynamic equilibrium constants and/or surface parameters from the concentrations of the species determined through experiments. Thermodynamic equilibrium constants can be found in tables (Pourbaix 1966) or databases (e.g., Common Thermodynamic Database Project, CHESS, MINTEQ, Visual MINTEQ, NEA Thermodynamical Data Base Project (TDB), JESS, Thermo-Calc Databases). Some programs (e.g., NETPATH, PHREEQC) also consider the flowing parameters. 

An interesting example of this large and complex project is the one regarding thermal and thermo-electrical plants. This project, through constant improvements of the design, the materials, the water chemistry and the monitoring systems, induces a continuing improvement of the plant performances. 

The research teams participating in the DECOVALEX III project were asked to predict the Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) response of both the bentonite and the rock mass after the commencement of the heating (from day 0). This paper summarizes the approach and results from the CNSC team for the bentonite response. 

Birkholzer, J, T. Tsang, Y. W. 1998. Interpretive Analysis of the Thermo-Hydrological Processes of the Drift Scale Test. In Drift Scale Test Progress Report, Chapter 6. Yucca Mountain Project Level 4 Milestone SP2930M4. Berkeley, California Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

For the Prototype Repository Project, six different geometries were considered in a preliminary thermo-mechanical analysis. Figure 1 shows the basic characteristics of those models. The case (6) corresponds to the actual geometry, assuming only a plane of symmetry. The rest of the geometries involve additional symmetries that are not strictly correct. The external boundaries were defined far away from the test, as usual in finite element computations. The effect of boundaries was particularly important for the thermal problem, the mechanical aspects being almost irrelevant in these cases. 

For the rock engineering, the projects are subject to the geological environment, which is coupled with the flow field, stress field, thermo field and chemical field and other physical or chemical fields. All these fields have influenced each other and formed a multi-field system in the rock, and it has leaded the rock mass system in a dynamic balance (Lu 2010). To explore the fluid law of the rock with a single fracture under 3D stresses is a fundamental and critical direction. The coupling of solid and fluid of the rock is a significant issue and it arouses extensive interests. And there are numerous researchers focus on it through theoretical and experimental methods. 

Thermodynamic Research Center (TRC), Thermodynamic Tables of Hydrocarbons, formerly American Petroleum Institute Project 44 (see Ref [8]) (published as loose leaf sheets by Texas A M University, College Station, TX presently NIST-TRC Boulder Co.), (a) D. R. Stull and H. Prophet, JANAF Thermo chemical Tables, 2nd edition, NSRDS-NBS 37, National Standard Reference Data System (NSRDS), National Bureau of Standards (NBS), Washington, DC (1971). (b) M. W. Chase, Jr., C. A. Davies, J. R. Downey, Jr., D. J. Fmrip, R. A. McDonald, and A. N. Syvemd, JANAF Thermo chemical Tables, 3rd edition (Parts I and II), J. Phys. Chem. Ref, Data 14 (Suppl. 1), 1-1856 (1985). (c) M. W. Chase,... 

The smectic A is an untilted phase in which the mass density wave is parallel to the director. The cost in free energy of buckling the layers into saddle-shaped deformations is low, with the result that it is relatively easy to construct devices that show bistability between a scattering focal conic director configuration in which the layers are buckled and a clear homeotropic configuration in which the director is perpendicular to the cell walls and the layers parallel to the walls. Transitions between these two textures have been exploited in laser-written projection displays and in both thermo-optic and electrooptic matrix displays. The various mechanisms employed are summarized in Fig. 12. 

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