Investigations on air pressure and air losses in compressed air tunneling through saturated clayey soil

Abstract

Determination of air pressure and assessment of air losses in clayey soil are of great importance to implementation of compressed air tunneling. In the present work, a series of air flow tests were performed to provide a more reasonable method based on flow characteristics of snap-off pressure and the dissolution/diffusion. Results showed that, the nonlinear air flow behavior and gas breakthrough were presented with the increase in air pressure. After that, the excessive pressure decreased continuously to reach an equilibrium termed as the snap-off. For the tested clayey soil, snap-off pressures around 250 kPa could be adopted as the air pressure, which was significantly lower than the gas breakthrough pressures. Diffusion coefficient of 1.5 × 10-11 m2/s could be determined in the followed dissolution/diffusion stage, which bring 3 orders of decreasing magnitude in air losses compared to the capillary flow occurred after gas breakthrough. As a conclusion, the adoption of snap-off pressure in compressed air tunneling could effectively prevent the continuous air/water flow in clayey soil and create a more human-friendly environment. Additionally, less air losses could be presented compared to that using gas breakthrough pressure, indicating tremendous energy savings in field implementation.