Demonstration of an Artificial Frozen Barrier.

摘要

Groundwater is the main source of drinking water for the majority of the U.S. population. Unfortunately, groundwater is susceptible to contamination from major sources, such as storage tanks, hazardous waste sites, landfills, and septic systems. Polluted groundwater can endanger public health or threaten the environment. Standard containment technologies include slurry walls, reactive barriers, sheet piling, and grouting. Another less common technique is freezing the contaminants in situ. The objective of this study is to create a frozen soil barrier using thermosyphons. The first phase of this study is presented in this report and investigated how long it takes for the rate of bulk soil freezing to complete the frozen soil barrier. At this installation, freezing to closure occurred after about 42 days and the barrier was 1 m thick after approximately 48 days. The average electricity usage was 132 kWh/day.