EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF CHANGES IN PERMEABILITY OF FROZEN SEDIMENTS AT THAWING

Evgeny Chuvilin, Sergey Grebenkin

In the proceedings of: GeoQuébec 2015: 68th Canadian Geotechnical Conference & 7th Canadian Permafrost Conference

Session: Laboratory Testing in Cold Regions / Essais en laboratoire en ingénierie nordique

ABSTRACT: Testing of water saturated samples of the fine-grained sediments conducted in a special device under a wide range of temperatures (-15 to +30°C) and pressures (up to 100 bar) allowed to evaluate their gas permeability. It has been found that increase in permeability during thawing of frozen samples depends on moisture content (ice content) and it is associated with the change in the structure of the pore space, the possible redistribution of water in the pores and volume changes during phase transitions of ice water. At the ice saturation below 40% the difference of values of the gas permeability of frozen and thawed samples was less than one order of magnitude. At an ice saturation more 40% the difference in permeability was more than 3 orders of magnitude. It is noted that the sediment samples are almost impermeable at the high power of pore filling (over 50% for the frozen and 70% for the thawed).

RÉSUMÉ: une large gamme de températures, de +20 à -30 °C, et des pressions atteignant les 100 bars. Les résultats obtenus tielle et par un changement du volume lors de la transition de phase eau-glace. Ainsi, lorsque la on en glace de plus de 40 %, la différence de perméabilité est de plus de trois ordres de grandeur. Il est à noter que les échantillons de sédiments sont presque imperméables à la puissance élevée de remplissage des pores (plus de 50 % pour les échantillons gelés et 70 % pour les dégelés).

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