Search

The effectiveness of sol-gel based treatments for the protection of concrete depends on their capacity to penetrate into the material pores. Optimization of sol formulation to achieve maximum penetration depth is not a straightforward process, as the influence of different physical properties of the sol varies with the pore size distribution of each concrete. Thus, a comprehensive experimental programme to evaluate this large number of materials would require a significant number of experiments. This manuscript describes an approach, using combined computational and experimental approach to design tailor-made impregnation products with opti-mized penetration depth on concrete or cementitious materials with different pore size distributions. First, a process-based numerical model, calibrated experimentally for one sol composition and several cementitious material samples with different pore structures is developed. The model calculates the penetration depth for a specific pore structure. The optimization process utilizes the probabilistic and non-parametric Gaussian Processes regression method Gaussian Processes at two steps; first to make the choice of the optimal experimental design, and second to make predictions of physical properties based on the obtained training points. In the final step, the penetration depth is calculated for each mix combination in defined parameter range. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated on three cases. In the first instance, we optimized the impregnation product for the maximum penetration depth without any restrictions. With another two cases, we impose the restrictions on the gelation time, i.e. the time in which the sol reacts to gel. The validation of the procedure has been made by the use of a blind validation and shows promising results. The impregnation product penetrated significantly deeper with a product selected by using the described procedure compared to the considered best product before this optimization. The proposed procedure can be applied to a wide range of cementitious materials based on their pore size distribution data. This offers significant advantage compared to purely experimental approaches, where a set of experiments is required for each considered material.

A coupled numerical approach is used to evaluate the influence of pore connectivity and microcracks on leaching kinetics in fully saturated cement paste. The unique advantage of the numerical model is the ability to construct and evaluate a material with controlled properties, which is very difficult under experimental conditions. Our analysis is based on two virtual microstructures, which are different in terms of pore connectivity but the same in terms of porosity and the amount of solid phases. Numerical fracturing was performed on these microstructures. The non-fractured and fractured microstructures were both subjected to chemical leaching. Results show that despite very different material physical properties, for example, pore connectivity and effective diffusivity, the leaching kinetics remain the same as long as the amount of soluble phases, i.e., buffering capacity, is the same. The leaching kinetics also remains the same in the presence of microcracks.

The performance of impregnation treatments used for protection and remediation of porous building materials relies on sufficient penetration depth. The penetration of sol–gel impregnation products into partially saturated porous material is driven by capillary suction and depends on material properties, such as pore size distribution on one hand, and on the other hand on sol physical properties, viscosity, density, surface tension and contact angle, along with the time in which the sol gels. In this work we analyse, by the way of modelling and experiments, the penetration depth of a sol–gel impregnation product as the function of pore size distribution and sol properties. The main goal is to determine the importance of sol’s physical properties for the penetration depth for a specific pore size, which will serve as a basis of the optimization of impregnation products to maximize their penetration depth. The model is first calibrated in terms of penetration depth and sol uptake by the experimental data obtained from mortar samples each with a specific pore-size distribution. The correlation between penetration depth and physical parameters is then established by the use of Monte-Carlo method. The results show that the most important parameters for the optimization are surface tension, whose influence increases for larger pores, and gelation time, which with decreasing importance for larger pores., The work described in this manuscript has been performed under InnovaConcrete EC project, supported by funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement N° 760858.

Many environments to which concrete is exposed are highly aggressive due to various chemical components. In such environments, concrete is subjected to processes of chemical degradation, among which carbonation is one of the most frequently seen degradation processes. Though, the influence of saturation degree (or relative humidity - RH) of the specimen and CO2 concentration on the carbonation of cementitious materials is still not comprehensively described with respect to carbonation rate/degree as well as alteration in microstructure and mineralogy. This work aims at thoroughly investigating how these two key parameters affect the carbonation under accelerated conditions. Furthermore, the effect of initial moisture state of the specimen on the carbonation rate is also demonstrated. For such purpose, a numerical model at continuum scale is developed to investigate the effects of RH and CO2 concentration on the carbonation depth, phase changes in phases and porosity of hardened cement pastes due to carbonation under accelerated conditions. Verification with experimental results from accelerated carbonation tests shows a good agreement. The modelling results with supporting experimental data help to better understand the modification of material properties under different carbonation conditions and to optimize the carbonation conditions.

The problem of calcium leaching kinetics of ordinary Portland cement based mortars is revisited via a mesoscale approach. Based on state-of-the-art lattice-Boltzmann technique, a comprehensive suite of leaching analysis is undertaken to address a number of open questions such as (i) the competing effects of interface transition zone (ITZ) and aggregates, (ii) relative leaching rates of calcium between ITZ and mortar cement paste, and (iii) the influence of different water to cement ratios, volume fraction of aggregates and hence of ITZ on leaching kinetics. The mesoscale model is not only able to correctly reproduce experimentally observed trends but also confirm the commonly accepted hypothesis that ITZ and aggregates counter-balance their effect leading to similar portlandite leaching rates in cement paste and mortars. The model also confirms the applicability of simple scaling approach for upscaling leaching kinetics from pure cement paste to mortar scale under the condition that ITZ is fully percolated.

In this paper, we describe a single-relaxation-time (SRT) lattice Boltzmann formulation, which can be effectively applied to anisotropic advection-dispersion equations (AADE). The formulation can be applied to space and time variable anisotropic hydrodynamic dispersion tensor. The approach utilizes diffusion velocity lattice Boltzmann formulation which in the case of AADE can represent anisotropic diagonal and off-diagonal elements of the dispersion matrix by the coupling of advective and diffusive fluxes in equilibrium function. With this approach, AADE can be applied to the SRT lattice Boltzmann formulation using the same equilibrium function and without any changes to collision step nor in the application of boundary conditions. The approach shows good stability even for highly anisotropic dispersion tensor and is tested on selected illustrative examples which demonstrate the accuracy and applicability of the proposed method.

In this paper, a newly developed lattice Boltzmann method based reactive transport model to simulate changes in microstructure of ordinary Portland cement paste due to calcium leaching is presented. The model takes three-dimensional digitized cement paste microstructure as input and is capable to capture an evolution of microstructure due to leaching, accounting for the dissolution of portlandite and corresponding increase in capillary porosity and the decalcification of C-S-H resulting in increase in gel porosity. The developed model has been applied to microstructures generated using two cement hydration models, CEMHYD3D and HYMSOTRUC, for three water-to-cement ratios. It was observed that the rate of leaching is directly proportional to ability of microstructure to transport calcium ions and higher fraction of percolated capillary pores result in higher rate of leaching. The model qualitatively reproduces experimentally observed changes in cement paste porosity and pore size distribution due to leaching. The quantitative validation of model at this scale is not possible by comparison of leaching obtained experiments and simulations which can be attributed to several factors including the differences in the scales of experiment and modelling study presented in this paper.

The role of capillary pores percolation and gel pores are investigated to explain the underlying differences between relative diffusivity obtained from different experimental techniques using microstructures generated from two different types of hydration model viz., CEMHYD3D (a voxel based approach) and HYMOSTRUC (a vector based approach). These models provide microstructures with different capillary pore connectivity for the same degree of hydration and the same porosity due to the underlying assumptions. In order to account for a C-S-H diffusivity at the micro-scale, a continuum micro-mechanics based model has been proposed. These simulations show that deperolation of capillary pores at around 20% of capillary porosity is essential in order to correctly predict diffusivity of cement paste with water-cement ratio by mass (w/c) in between 0.4 and 0.5. Furthermore from our analysis we present a viable postulate that the higher diffusivity measured by electric resistivity compared to other methods is due to differences in contribution from gel pores. For electrical resistivity measurement it is proposed that all gel pores are diffusive whereas for ion and tracer transport it is proposed that only nitrogen accessible gel pores are diffusive.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of existing experimental and modelling approaches to determine effective diffusion coefficients of water saturated ordinary Portland cement-based materials. A dataset for diffusivity obtained from different experimental techniques have been presented for cement paste, mortar and concrete. For cement paste at low porosities, diffusivity reported by different authors varies up to a factor of five and electrical resistivity measurements for low capillary porosity are up to one order of magnitude higher compared to other techniques. Experimental data of mortar and concrete reveals predominant influence of increasing tortuosity due to aggregates and limited influence of interface transition zone. Hence, a particular emphasis has been placed on assessing predictability of diffusivity models for cement paste on a larger dataset collected in this paper. It has been observed that all predictive models have similar level of accuracy and fail to predict electrical resistivity data at low capillary porosity as these models are not calibrated using electrical resistivity data.

Underground concrete structures in radioactive waste disposal have the potential to be subjected to a high hydrostatic pressure and the surrounding environment may contain a high dissolved CO2 concentration. Therefore, a combination of diffusion and advection should be taken into account when one considers the carbonation mechanism. This study aims at developing a model to predict the evolution of the microstructure and transport properties of hardened cement pastes due to carbonation under accelerated conditions in which a pressure gradient of pure CO2 is applied. The current model is improved from the preliminary model in terms of extension to limestone cement paste and accounting for the transport of moisture. The proposed model is based on a macroscopic mass balance for CO2 and moisture in both gaseous and aqueous phases. A simplified solid-liquid equilibrium curve is used to relate the Ca content in aqueous and solid phases. Besides the prediction of the changes in porosity, diffusivity, permeability, and saturation degree, the model also enables prediction of the carbonation degree, portlandite content, and CO2 uptake. Verification with experimental results from accelerated carbonation tests shows a good agreement.

Simulation of dissolution processes with a pore-scale reactive transport model increases insight in coupled chemical-physical-transport processes. However, modelling of dissolution process often requires a large number of time steps especially when the buffering capacity of solid phases is high. In this work we analyze the interplay between solid buffering on one hand and transport on the other. Based on this analysis we propose an approach to reduce the number of required time steps for simulating equilibrium dissolution processes. The underlying idea is that the number of time step iterations can be reduced if the buffering is sufficient to bring the system to a steady state, i.e. that the concentration field around solid is time-invariant. If this condition is satisfied, then it is possible to reduce the physical (and thus also computational) time by adjusting the chemical system appropriately. First we derived a dimensionless value - called buffering number - to determine under which conditions reduction in time can be made. Several examples illustrate that below a certain buffering number, the physical time can be reduced without significant effect on result (e.g. dissolution front) as long as the solid volume fraction is sufficient. This means that for a given solid-liquid system, the calculation time can be reduced either by the reduction of mass in solid or by the increase of equilibrium concentration (solubility). We also show that the calculation time for calcium leaching in cementitious systems can be reduced by 50 times with a negligible error.

Near-surface cement-based disposal systems for hazardous materials such as radioactive waste will undergo chemical alterations due to interaction with the surrounding environment. One of the most relevant long-term geochemical alteration processes is decalcification or leaching of the cement phases by percolating water. Consequently, the cementitious components of the disposal system will evolve through different chemical degradation states, also altering physical material parameters such as porosity and bulk density and chemical parameter relevant to solute migration such as the solid–liquid partition coefficient or distribution ratio. This paper presents a novel approach in which geochemical modelling serves as a fundamental basis for assessing the evolution of geochemical conditions within a cement-based near-surface disposal facility. On one hand, geochemical modelling is used to quantify uncertainties related to the infiltrating water composition and C–S–H degradation model, both of which allow for various conceptualisations of the evolution of retardation factor. On the other hand, the concept of mixed tank reactor is used to represent cement degradation within the entire disposal system. This paves the way to establish a link between the evolution of the geochemical conditions and the evolution of the retardation factor via the knowledge of amount of percolated water through the system. The usefulness of the approach is demonstrated via a number of case studies concerning leaching of radionuclides ( 14 C and 94 Nb) from a cementitious near-surface disposal facility. The studies reveal that there is a large effect of the conceptualisation on calculated fluxes from the disposal facility, depending on the type of radionuclide. A crucial factor is the amount of radionuclide mass present in the disposal system when large changes in the retardation factor occur, for instance, when different retardation factors exist in different chemical degradation states.

Analysis of the effect of fractures in porous media on fluid flow and mass transport is of great interest in many fields including geotechnical, petroleum, hydrogeology and waste management. This paper presents sensitivity analyses examining the effect of various hypothetical fracture networks on the performance of a planned near surface disposal facility in terms of radionuclide transport behaviour. As it is impossible to predict the initiation and evolution of fracture networks and their characteristics in concrete structures over time scales of interest, several fracture networks have been postulated to test the sensitivity of radionuclide release from a disposal facility. Fluid flow through concrete matrix and fracture networks are modelled via Darcy's law. A single species radionuclide transport equation is employed for both matrix and fracture networks, which include the processes advection, diffusion, dispersion, sorption/desorption and radioactive decay. The sensitivity study evaluates variations in fracture network configuration and fracture width together with different sorption/desorption characteristics of radionuclides in a cement matrix, radioactive decay constants and matrix dispersivity. The effect of the fractures is illustrated via radionuclide breakthrough curves, magnitude and time of peak mass flux, cumulative mass flux and concentration profiles. For the investigated system, radionuclide properties and the imposed water flow boundary conditions, results demonstrate that: (i) magnitude of peak radionuclide fluxes is less sensitive to the fracture network geometry, (ii) timing of the peak radionuclide fluxes is possibly sensitive to the fracture networks, (iii) a uniform flow model represents a limiting case of a porous medium with large number of fine fractures, (iv) the effect of fracture width on the radionuclide flux depends on the ratio of fracture to matrix conductivity and is less sensitive if the ratio is large and the width is higher than a certain critical size, and (v) increased dispersivity in fractured media influences the transport behaviour differently compared to non-fractured media; in particular, the behaviour depends on the nature of fracture network.

A versatile lattice Boltzmann (LB) based pore-scale multicomponent reactive transport approach is presented in this paper. This approach is intended to capture mineral phase and pore structure evolution resulting from geochemical interactions applicable, for example to model microstructural evolution of hardened cement paste during chemical degradation. In the proposed approach heterogeneous reactions are conceptualized as pseudo-homogenous (volumetric) reactions by introducing an additional source term in the fluid node located at the interface adjacent to a solid node, and not as flux boundaries as used in previously proposed approaches. This allows a complete decoupling of transport and reaction computations, thus different reaction systems can be introduced within the LB framework through coupling with external geochemical codes. A systematic framework for coupling an external geochemical code with the LB including pore geometry evolution is presented, with the generic geochemical code PHREEQC as an example. The developed approach is validated with a set of benchmarks. A first example demonstrates the ability of the developed approach to capture the influence of pH on average portlandite dissolution rate and surface evolution. This example is further extended to illustrate the influence of reactive surface area and spatial arrangement of mineral grains on average dissolution rate. It was demonstrated that both location of mineral grains and surface area play a crucial role in determining average dissolution rate and pore structure evolution.

The benchmark problem presented in this paper deals with the leaching of calcium from hardened cement paste. The leaching of calcium results in the dissolution of the cement minerals which affects physical, chemical and mechanical properties of porous cement matrix. The dissolution of cement minerals in this case progresses heterogeneously as a consequence of a small-scale geometrical feature (crack) within a domain. Complexity of transport through cracked porous media combined with complex cement chemistry can lead to considerable modelling uncertainties. One possible way to get an insight into the robustness of modelling results is to perform benchmark based on (i) different transport models and solution methods (finite volume, finite element, etc.), (ii) different geochemical solvers and (iii) different coupling algorithms (sequential iterative and non-iterative). This benchmark is designed to gradually increase the complexity of the problem and in this way recognize modelling elements that are the most sensitive in terms of modelling results, e.g. evolution of physical and chemical properties. Five international teams participated in this benchmark exercise. The reactive transport codes used (HYTEC, MIN3P, OGS-GEM, ORCHESTRA, COMSOL Multiphysics-iPHREEQC) give similar patterns in terms of predicted concentrations of elements and the mineralogy. The level of agreement depends on the problem complexity related mainly to the weighting and conservation properties of different numerical methods, to the coupling between transport and reactive solver and the agreement of thermodynamic database.

This paper reviews the previous axisymmetric global interpolation functions used in the context of the dual reciprocity boundary element method and dual reciprocity method of fundamental solutions connected to axisymmetric Laplace operator. It complements our axisymmetric thin plate splines [1] with the axisymmetric form of the Hardy's multiquadrics (r2+r02)m/2; m=±1. This new functions can be used in the improved Golberg–Chen–Karur [2] type of approximations. The basic equations are accompanied by a set of related expressions that permit straightforward use of the developed global interpolation functions in a broad spectrum of dual reciprocity boundary element method and method of fundamental solutions, and meshless direct collocation like discrete approximate procedures.

This paper describes the solution of a steady‐state natural convection problem in porous media by the radial basis function collocation method (RBFCM). This mesh‐free (polygon‐free) numerical method is for a coupled set of mass, momentum, and energy equations in two dimensions structured by the Hardy's multiquadrics with different shape parameter and different order of polynomial augmentation. The solution is formulated in primitive variables and involves iterative treatment of coupled pressure, velocity, pressure correction, velocity correction, and energy equations. Numerical examples include convergence studies with different collocation point density and arrangements for a two‐dimensional differentially heated rectangular cavity problem at filtration Rayleigh numbers Ra*=25, 50 and 100, and aspect ratios A=1/2, 1, and 2. The solution is assessed by comparison with reference results of the fine‐mesh finite volume method in terms of mid‐plane velocity components, mid‐plane and insulated surface temperatures, streamfunction minimum, and Nusselt number.

This paper describes the solution of a steady natural convection problem in porous media by the dual reciprocity boundary element method. The boundary element method for the coupled set of mass, momentum, and energy equations in two-dimensions is structured by the fundamental solution of the Laplace equation. The dual reciprocity method is based on augmented scaled thin plate splines. Numerical examples include convergence studies with different mesh size, uniform and non-uniform mesh arrangement, and constant, linear, and quadratic boundary field discretisations for differentially heated rectangular cavity problems at filtration with Rayleigh number of Ra p ¼ 25; 50, and 100, Darcy numbers Da ¼ 10 23 ; and 10 25 , and aspect ratios A ¼ 1=2; 1, and 2. The solution is assessed by comparison with reference results of the fine-mesh finite volume method. q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper describes the solution of a steady state natural convection problem in porous media by the dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM). The boundary element method (BEM) for the coupled set of mass, momentum, and energy equations in two dimensions is structured by the fundamental solution of the Laplace equation. The dual reciprocity method is based on augmented scaled thin plate splines. Numerical examples include convergence studies with different mesh size, uniform and non-uniform mesh arrangement, and constant and linear boundary field discretizations for differentially heated rectangular cavity problems at filtration with Rayleigh numbers of Ra*=25, 50, and 100 and aspect ratios of A=1/2, 1, and 2. The solution is assessed by comparison with reference results of the fine mesh finite volume method (FVM). Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In large cement-based structures such as a near surface disposal facility for radioactive waste voids and cracks are inevitable. However, the pattern and nature of cracks are very difficult to predict reliably. Cracks facilitate preferential water flow through the facility because their saturated hydraulic conductivity is generally higher than the conductivity of the cementitious matrix. Moreover, sorption within the crack is expected to be lower than in the matrix and hence cracks in engineered barriers can act as a bypass for radionuclides. Consequently, understanding the effects of crack characteristics on contaminant fluxes from the facility is of utmost importance in a safety assessment. In this paper we numerically studied radionuclide leaching from a crack-containing cementitious containment system. First, the effect of cracks on radionuclide fluxes is assessed for a single repository component which contains a radionuclide source (i.e. conditioned radwaste). These analyses reveal the influence of cracks on radionuclide release from the source. The second set of calculations deals with the safety assessment results for the planned near-surface disposal facility for low-level radioactive waste in Dessel (Belgium); our focus is on the analysis of total system behaviour in regards to release of radionuclide fluxes from the facility. Simulation results are interpreted through a complementary safety indicator (radiotoxicity flux). We discuss the possible consequences from different scenarios of cracks and voids.

The paper aims to highlight recent developments at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK•CEN in experimental and numerical study of the coupled physical-chemical behaviour of concrete subject to chemical degradation. The discussion mainly focusses on three interlinked research projects covering novel experimental methods to study the alteration of hydraulic and transport properties during carbonation and calcium leaching, a pore scale numerical model to capture microstructural changes due to the above degradation processes and a generic multiscale model aimed at determining evolution of the properties of a macrostructure over the long term. The paper also describes supplementary continuum scale numerical studies concerning concrete-clay interactions and geochemical impact on the physical structure of concrete. Preliminary findings from these studies show encouraging results such as the development of novel leaching, water permeability and diffusion apparatus, a robust pore scale model based on Lattice-Boltzmann method and a mesoscale study focused on the importance of interfacial transition zones on the effective diffusivity for linear and nonlinear diffusion problems.

ONDRAF/NIRAS, the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials, and its partners have developed long-term safety and performance analyses in the framework of the license application for a surface disposal facility for low level radioactive waste (category A waste) at Dessel, Belgium. This paper focusses on the methodology of the safety assessments and on key results from the application of this methodology. An overview is given (1) of the performance analyses for the containment safety function of the disposal system and (2) of the radiological impact analyses confirming that radiological impacts are below applicable reference values and constraints and leading to radiological criteria for the waste and the facility. In this discussion, multiple indicators for performance and safety are used to illustrate the multi-faceted nature of long-term performance and safety of the surface disposal. This contributes to the multiple lines of reasoning for confidence building that a positive decision to proceed to the next stage of construction is justified.

Long-term safety of radioactive waste disposal facilities relies on the longevity of natural or engineered barriers designed to minimize the migration of contaminants from the facility into the environment. Especially near surface disposal facilities, such as planned by ONDRAF/NIRAS for the Dessel site in Belgium, long-term safety relies almost exclusively on the containment ability of the engineered barriers (EB) with concrete being the most important EB material used. Concrete is preferred over other materials mainly due to its favourable chemical properties resulting in a high chemical retention capacity, and owing to its good hydraulic isolation properties. However, due to the long time frames typically involved in safety assessment, the chemical, physical and mechanical properties of concrete evolve in time. The alterations in concrete mineralogy also cause changes in pH and sorption behaviour for many radionuclides during chemical degradation processes. Application of dynamic sorption of concrete requires an adequate knowledge of long-term concrete degradation processes, knowledge of the effect of changing mineralogy to sorption of radionuclides and knowledge of large-scale system behaviour over time. Moreover, when applied to safety assessment models, special attention is required to assure robustness and transparency of the implementation. The discussion in this paper focuses on the sorption properties of concrete; selection of data, rescaling issues and on the hypotheses used to build a robust and yet transparent dynamic model for large-scale concrete structures for assessing the long-term performance.

Safety assessment of radioactive waste disposal facilities is usually carried out by means of simplified models. Abstraction of the numerical model from the real physical environment is done in several steps. One of the most challenging issues in safety assessment concerns the long time scales involved and the evolution of engineered barriers over thousands of years. For some processes occurring in specific engineered barriers the uncertainties related to long time scales are addressed by implementing conservative assumptions in the radionuclide migration models. Other processes such as chemical concrete degradation, however, can be estimated for long time periods by the use of coupled geochemical transport models. For many near-surface disposal facilities, concrete is a very important engineered barrier because it is used in the construction of disposal modules or vaults, in production of high-integrity monoliths and their backfilling and for waste conditioning. Knowledge on the durability of such concrete components and its relation to radionuclide sorption is important for a defensible safety assessment. Chemical degradation typically occurs as the result of decalcification, dissolution and leaching of cement components and carbonation. These reactions induce a gradual change in the solid phase composition and the concrete pore-water composition, from “fresh” concrete porewater with a pH above 13 to a pH lower than 10 for “evolved” porewater associated with fully degraded concrete. The focus of this work is to analyse the behaviour of the disposal facility in terms of radionuclides sorption values depending on the geochemical evolution of engineered barriers. The time-dependency of the concrete mineralogy and porewater is coupled with sorption values that are characteristic for the four concrete degradation states: (i) State I with a pH larger than 12.5, controlled by the dissolution of alkali-oxides, (ii) State II with a pH at 12.5 controlled by the dissolution of portlandite, (iii) State III with a pH between 12.5 and 10 when all portlandite is dissolved and the pore water composition is determined by different cement phases including calcium-silicate hydrates (C-S-H phases), and (iv) State IV with a pH lower than 10 with calcite and aggregate minerals present. Above mentioned pH values are valid for a system with a temperature of 25°C. Sorption values are obtained from a literature review. The time-dependency of the sorption values Rd is implemented in a one-dimensional radionuclide migration model used for release calculations from the planned near-surface disposal facility at Dessel, Belgium. Calculated releases will be discussed for radionuclides typical of low- and intermediate level short-lived (LILW-SL) waste.Copyright © 2009 by ASME

Gas generation and gas transport phenomena occur in geological repositories of radioactive waste. This has been extensively studied over the past ten years, usually within the framework of international projects (MEGAS, PROGRESS, etc.). These studies indicate that the production of hydrogen by anaerobic corrosion of metals is the most important source for gas generation. Laboratory and in situ experiments carried out at SCK.CEN indicate that, in the presence of Boom Clay (the reference geologic formation for deep disposal studies in Belgium), carbon steel suffers generalised corrosion estimated conservatively at 1 {mu}m y{sup -1}. Simulations with the finite difference multi-phase flow code TOUGH2 were carried out in an attempt to quantify the effects of hydrogen gas generation on desaturation of initially saturated concrete components of the disposal gallery and the concomitant expulsion of cementitious pore-water into the surrounding host formation. Several simulation cases were considered and addressed differences in initial water saturation degree of concrete, hydrogen gas generation rate, and material porosity. Several conceptual models have been developed to better understand the phenomena at work in the transport of gas in the cementitious engineered barriers and Boom Clay. Multi-phase flow modelling was found to be helpful to get insight into themore » phenomenology of coupled water-gas flow in the cementitious engineered barriers. However, modeling the discontinuous variation in the conductivity of the clay relative to the gas (creation of preferential pathways) requires incorporation of geomechanical processes in conventional models based on the laws of two-phase flow. (authors)« less

The key objective of the work described here was to support the identification of a preferred disposal concept and packaging option for low and short-lived intermediate level waste (LILW-SL). The emphasis of the assessment, conducted on behalf of the Slovenian radioactive waste management agency (ARAO), was the consideration of several waste treatment and packaging options in an attempt to identify optimised containment characteristics that would result in safe disposal, taking into account the cost-benefit of alternative safety measures. Waste streams for which alternative treatment and packaging solutions were developed and evaluated include decommissioning waste and NPP operational wastes, including drums with unconditioned ion exchange resins in overpacked tube type containers (TTCs). For decommissioning wastes, the disposal options under consideration were either direct disposal of loose pieces grouted into a vault or use of high integrity containers (HIC). In relation to operational wastes, three main options were foreseen. The first is overpacking of resin containing TTCs grouted into high integrity containers, the second option is complete treatment with hydration, neutralization, and cementation of the dry resins into drums grouted into high integrity containers and the third is direct disposal of TTCs into high integrity containers without additional treatment. The long-term safety of radioactive waste repositories is usually demonstrated with the support of a safety assessment. This normally includes modelling of radionuclide release from a multi-barrier near-surface or deep repository to the geosphere and biosphere. For the current work, performance assessment models were developed for each combination of siting option, repository design and waste packaging option. Modelling of releases from the engineered containment system (the ‘near-field’) was undertaken using the AMBER code [1]. Detailed unsaturated water flow modelling was undertaken using the HYDRUS code [2], where the degree of engineered barrier degradation with time is accounted for in each packaging option. Water fluxes relating to each degradation level were then incorporated into the AMBER models for further radionuclide transport calculations appropriate to each packing solution. The approach proved to be highly flexible, transparent and effective in terms of calculation time. Results demonstrate that all waste streams could be accepted at the preferred site with the surface repository option, under the condition that all decommissioning waste would be grouted into high integrity containers. The use of high integrity containers is also recommended for all other waste streams. Results from the detailed analysis further showed that in-drum-dried ion exchange resins in TTCs would be acceptable when grouted into high integrity containers, thereby avoiding the need for complicated processing and repackaging.Copyright © 2007 by ASME

This paper describes the application of a single relaxation time (SRT) lattice Boltzmann scheme to the transport in porous media with large spatial variations of diffusion coefficients. Effective diffusion coefficients can vary substantially within porous media because of their dependence on porosity and tortuosity which can span over several orders of magnitude, depending on pore size and connectivity. Moreover, when mass is transported with pore-water in porous media, the hydrodynamic dispersion, which depends on Darcy's velocity, contributes additionally to the usually anisotropic variation of the dissipative term. In contrast to the traditional treatment of spatially variable diffusion coefficient by the variation of a SRT, here the variability is accommodated through the use of diffusion velocity formulation which allows for larger variabilities of diffusion coefficient. The volume averaged properties of mass transport in macroscopic porous media are resolved through the additional source term which is similar to the existing force adjusting methods. The applicability of both the proposed schemes is demonstrated on two examples. The first demonstrates that the method is accurate for the large variation of diffusion coefficients and porosities. The second example introduces mass diffusion in a real, geometrically complex system with spatially contrasting properties.

Calcium leaching is one of the important degradation mechanisms causing dissolution of the crystalline phases such as, AFm, portlandite increasing capillary porosity. Further it leads to decalcification of an amorphous C-S-H phase causing increase in the gel porosity and in turn degrading the long term performance of concrete structures. In this paper a lattice Boltzmann based pore-scale reactive transport approach in the context of simulating the evolution of microstructure of a hardened cement paste during calcium leaching is presented. This approach is based on fundamental principles of chemical thermodynamics and mass transport. The example presented illustrates influence of location of mineral grains and surface area on overall dissolution rate and pore structure evolution.