Modeling heat and mass transfer during ground freezing subjected to high seepage velocities

Abstract

Natural or induced groundwater flow may negatively influence the performance of artificial ground freezing: high water flow velocities can prevent frozen conditions from developing. Reliable models that take into consideration hydraulic mechanisms are then needed to predict the ground freezing development. For forty years, numerous thermo-hydraulic coupled numerical models have been developed. Some of these models have been validated against experimental data but only one has been tested under high water flow velocity conditions. This paper describes a coupled thermo-hydraulic numerical model completely thermodynamically consistent and designed to simulate artificial ground freezing of a saturated and non-deformable porous medium under seepage flow conditions. On some points, less restrictive assumptions than the ones usually used in the literature are considered. As for the constant-porosity assumption, its validity is verified. The model appears to be well validated against analytical solutions and a three-dimensional ground freezing experiment under high seepage flow velocity conditions. It is used to highlight key thermo-hydraulic mechanisms associated with phase change in a porous medium.