NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY WARANGAL
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
POST - DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP (PDF)
UNSATURATED SOIL MECHANICS INTERFACE WITH ENERGY
CONSUMPTION AND CARBON DIOXIDE GEOLOGICAL SEQUESTRATION
By
Dr. R.SURESH
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
• INTRODUCTION
• OBJECTIVES
• METHODOLOGY
• CONCLUSION
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INTRODUCTION
• Expansive soils are known worldwide for their volume change behavior due to moisture
fluctuation because of their intrinsic mineralogical behavior.
• These types of soils are found mainly in the arid and semi-arid regions in the world.
• They covers a major portion on the geographical area in the world such as Australia, Canada,
China, India, South Africa, and the United states.
• Expansive soils are clayey soils are extensive specific surface area and high cation exchange
capacity.
• Clay minerals: The principal minerals in clays are layer-lattice silicates (phyllosilicates), the
layer lattic silicates are made upon combination of two structural units, silicon-oxygen
tetrahedron and aluminium-oxygen hydroxyl octahedron.
• In clay minerals, most common exchangeable cations are C++, Mg++, H+, K+, NH4+, Na+,
frequently in about that order of general relative abundance.
• The clay mineral platelets carry negative charges on there surfaces. The nature of the charges
on their edges appear to be dependent on the pH of the prevailing environment.
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World map: Various regions
ORANGE and YELLOW are predominantly arid and semi-arid
regions.
More than 60% of the world population live in this regions (Sai
vanapally 2018).
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Fig 1: Silica Tetrahedral sheet (Holtz and Kovacs, 1981) Fig 2: Aluminum octahedral Sheet
(Holtz and Kovacs, 1981)
Figure 3. Diagram of the structures of (a) kaolinite; (b) illite; (c) montmorillonite (from Brooks, 2001)
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Fig 4: Schematic diagrams of the structure of montmorillonite (Zhu et al. 2016)
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Various geotechnical infrastructures in unsaturated soils
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Expansive soils:
• Expansive soils are a hidden disaster.
• $Billions of dollars of infrastructure damages
Causes by expansive soils
• Expansive soils damages are now exceed than
floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornados.
• The problems in expansive soils are detrimental
cracking of lightly loaded civil engineering
structures such as foundations, retaining walls,
Fig 5: Atomic structure of montmorillonite (after Grim-1959)
pavements, airports,
side walks, canal beds and linings.
Pavements, dams and embankments
Residential and industrial Dwellings
• Clay mineralogy–montmorillonite (mm)
• Smectite group: specific surface area(600to800m2/g)
• CEC – 47 to 162 meq/100g
Fig: 6 SEM image of montmorillonite
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Fig :7 The annual cost of damage to structures built on expansive soils in the
United States since 1967(Adem and Vanapalli 2016)
Region Cost of damage/year Reference
USA $ 13 billion Puppala and cerato (2009)
UK £ 400 million Driscoll and Crilly (2000)
France € 3.3 billion Johnson (1973)
Saudi Arabia $ 300 million Ruwail (1987)
China ¥ 100 million Ng et al. (2003)
Australia $ 150 million Osman et al. (2005)
Table: 3 The annual cost associated with the damage to structures constructed in or with
expansive soils for different regions in the world (after adam and vanapalli 2016 )
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Figure 8: Federal highway administration office of research
and development Washington, Volume 1 research report March 1979
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OBJECTIVES :
• Study and evaluate the suction behaviour of
volume change behaviour of soil water
characteristic curve (SWCC).
• Study and investigate the shear strength and
volume change behaviour of unsaturated soils.
• To study the thermal behavior of unsaturated
soils.
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Methodology UNSATURATED SOILS
Shear strength and volume change Thermo- mechanical behaviour and CO2 Emission
behaviour
Physical tests Chemical tests Engineering tests
Specific gravity CEC SWCC
Triaxial test &
Atterberg limits SSA Consolidation test
SUCTION
Hydrometer analysis
Energy
Geostructurs
Standard Compaction
Analysis of results
Assess stabilization mechanism
Variation in water content/ Engineering properties/SWCC/Suction/Thermo mechanical behaviour
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Soil testing Apparatuses
Strength and compressibility tests
• Triaxial test.
• Oedometer test.
Measurement of metric suction
• Tensiometer.
• Filter paper method.
• Pressure plate.
• Axis translation technique.
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• New instrumentation such as the direct, high suction tensiometer, and the
indirect thermal conductivity suction sensor, have provided new
measurement techniques for the laboratory and the field. Other
measurement systems are also showing promise. These devices allow
suctions to be measured over a considerable range of matric suctions.
The null type, axis translation technique remains a laboratory reference
procedure for the measurement of matric suction.
Tensiometer 20
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• Energy Geotechnology must play a central role in the development of a
sustainable energy strategy.
• Geotechnology is intimately involved in all energy resources, including
fossil fuels (petroleum gas and coal), nuclear energy, and renewable
sources (wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, biofuels, and tidal energy).
• Geotechnical engineering is required to manage energy-related waste,
ranging from fly ash to CO2 emissions and nuclear waste. Furthermore,
geotechnical engineering can contribute to geo-environmental remediation,
the design of new facilities in view of life-cycle needs and
decommissioning, and geotechnical construction methods that reduce the
embodied energy in infrastructure projects.
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• Many countries, particularly in Africa, have energy consumption lower
than 100 W/person, while nations in the developed world exceed 4000
W/person; in particular, the USA consumes energy at the rate of 11000 W/
person.
• The 100 W/person mark is of particular interest because this is equivalent
to a healthy diet of 2000 calories per day, i.e., the energy required to
sustain our bodies. It is not surprising then, that countries with very low
energy consumption also exhibit very high infant mortality rate and very
low life expectancy.
• Indeed, the critical relevance of energy in our lives is readily demonstrated
by the correlation between quality of life indicators and power
consumption.
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• The earth is 4.5 billion years old. Bioactivity started approximately 3.5
billion years ago and played a critical role in trapping CO2 from the
atmosphere (fueled by solar energy), converting carbon into organic
matter, and releasing the oxygen back into the atmosphere.
• The accumulation of organic matter, starting about 600 million years ago,
led to the formation of fossil fuels. In contrast to these lengthy formation
processes, our consumption of fossil fuels took-off with the Industrial
Revolution, approximately 200 years ago, and the anticipated reserves are
sufficient to satisfy our current needs for another 100 to 200 years.
• The current global power consumption is about 16 TW. To sustain current
trends, we need to increase power production by 1% every year. If we
promote growth in the developing world to attain an adequate quality of
life, a 2% per year increase in power production is needed worldwide.
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• The comprehension of geometric scales is equally revealing.
• Most fossil fuels are extracted from the upper 2 km.
• 90% of the atmospheric mass is within 16 km from the sea
level. The earth is a large hot body. In contrast, the atmosphere
is a very thin layer, yet, it receives all carbon emissions that
result from burning fossil fuels and is also responsible for
thermal balance and weather.
• The current global energy consumption rate is ~13TW (Note:
one tera-Watt = 1012 W). This total consumption combines
oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, and other
renewable sources.
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• Gaps in the data represent either countries with large populations (quasi
horizontal steps) or large consumption per capita (quasi-vertical steps).
Notable countries are India (population 1300 million; consumption: 0.4
kW/person), China (population 1314 million; consumption: 1.1
kW/person) and the USA (population 298 million; consumption: 10.1
kW/person).
• The impact of the USA on the global energy balance is evident: it
consumes about 25% of the world’s total consumption with about 5% of
the world’s population.
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The coupling between growth, energy, C-emissions, and climate change has become
the most challenging global puzzle humanity has faced. The do-nothing option is no
longer an option. In view of the time-scales of political and natural processes, waiting
for further developments and theory confirmation appears to be a high risk
proposition. Decision making must gain critical national and international relevance.
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• There are two other important potential contributions of geotechnical
engineering to the energy sector. One is in the area of Geo-Environmental
remediation and the design of new facilities in view of life-cycle needs
and decommissioning. The other is the development of Geotechnical
construction methods that can reduce the embodied energy in
infrastructure projects.
• Fossil fuel burning is accompanied by the emission of carbon. With the
accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, there is increased
concern for potential dramatic changes in climate.
• The scenarios consider the coupling between energy consumption rate per
capita, quality of life, population growth, social inequality, and governments’
energy-for-life efficiency. The results show the energy cost of increasing
quality of life in the developing world, energy savings that can be realized by
limiting overconsumption without impacting quality of life, and the role of
governments on increasing energy for-life efficiency and reducing social
inequality.
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Energy Geostructures:
• The increase in the number of energy geostructures increased the
importance of interaction between the soil and energy structure and soil
behaviour under high temperatures.
• Today use of many structures or elements such as energy piles, buried
power cables, solid waste and nuclear waste storage areas, etc., which
cause soils to be exposed to high temperatures.
• The behaviour of soils in the presence of temperature varies in many
respects. For example, the shear strength of the normally consolidated clay
increases with increasing soil temperature. Also the studies have shown
that the slope of the shear strength envelope is independent of the
temperature.
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Geotechnics and renewable energy
• Over the past few years, there has been a strong interest in the geotechnical
aspects of renewable energy in the world. The research efforts have
focused not only on addressing challenges encountered when constructing
the infrastructure for systems for geothermal heat exchange, solar thermal
energy storage and support of wind and tidal generation but also on
developing a better understanding of fundamental soil properties and
constitutive models.
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Figure: Applications of geothermal heat exchange systems in energy geotechnics: (a)
energy piles integrated into a new building foundation system; (b) solar thermal panels
coupled with geothermal heat exchangers; (c) heat exchangers integrated into municipal
solid waste landfills 36
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Concluding remarks
• Energy Geotechnology is a new frontier for the geotechnical engineering field, with
unprecedented relevance to a critical worldwide challenge. Indeed, Energy
Geotechnology is an integral part of the development of a sustainable energy
strategy.
• Future energy demands will reflect the coupling between energy consumption,
quality of life, population growth, social inequality, and governments’ energy-for-
life efficiency. Following current trends, the status-quo scenario anticipates a global
power consumption of 25.5 TW by the year 2040, which is a 50% increase from
the 2020 level and an 11.5 TW increase in global demand in 20 years.
• The next generation of Engineers will require the proper education to address the
needs in Energy Geotechnology.
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