Stuart A. Stothoff

Multi-temporal image analysis of historical aerial photographs and recent satellite imagery reveals evolution of water body surface area and polygonal terrain morphology in Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska

Multi-temporal image analysis of very-high-resolution historical aerial and recent satellite imagery of the Ahnewetut Wetlands in Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska, revealed the nature of thaw lake and polygonal terrain evolution over a 54-year period of record comprising two 27-year intervals (1951?1978, 1978?2005). Using active-contouring-based change detection, high-precision orthorectification and co-registration and the normalized difference index, surface area expansion and contraction of 22 shallow water bodies, ranging in size from 0.09 to 179?ha, and the transition of ice-wedge polygons from a low- to a high-centered morphology were quantified. Total surface area decreased by only 0.4% during the first time interval, but decreased by 5.5% during the second time interval. Twelve water bodies (ten lakes and two ponds) were relatively stable with net surface area decreases of ?10%, including four lakes that gained area during both time intervals, whereas ten water bodies (five lakes and five ponds) had surface area losses in excess of 10%, including two ponds that drained completely. Polygonal terrain remained relatively stable during the first time interval, but transformation of polygons from low- to high-centered was significant during the second time interval.

Sensitivity of long‐term bare soil infiltration simulations to hydraulic properties in an arid environment

The suitability of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for emplacement of a high-level nuclear waste geologic repository is currently being evaluated. Assessments of the repository performance suggest that the uncertainty in infiltration rates strongly affects predicted repository performance. Most of the ground surface over the potential repository footprint is characterized by shallow to deep colluvium/alluvium overlying densely fractured, welded tuffs. In order to identify characteristic behavior of infiltration that might be expected at the site, two idealizations of this situation are examined: an effectively semi-infinite column of alluvium and a two-layer column of alluvium over a fractured impermeable matrix. For each idealization the impact of hydraulic properties is assessed. Examining the sensitivity of bare soil simulator predictions for an effectively semi-infinite column, it is found that decreasing the air entry pressure while holding all other parameters at a fixed level tends to increase both the long-term average moisture content and the long-term average net infiltration flux for homogeneous media. In contrast, increasing the van Genuchten scale parameter (m=1 − 17sol;n) or decreasing the porosity tends to decrease the average soil moisture but increase the infiltration. Most interestingly, three regimes are found for permeability. For relatively high permeabilities, there is a trend toward increasing average infiltration and increasing average moisture content with decreasing permeability. For relatively low permeabilities, vapor transport dominates over liquid transport, runoff and evaporation overwhelm infiltration, and the soil becomes very dry with essentially no infiltration flux. Between the extreme cases of high and low permeability, there is a zone where decreasing permeability results in decreased infiltration but increased moisture content, which is explained by the capacity of more permeable media to maintain surface wetness for longer periods of time after precipitation, thus allowing longer periods of evaporation at the potential rate. When there is a highly permeable fractured matrix underlying the alluvium, the depth of the alluvial cover has a dominant impact on infiltration. With little or no cover, more than half of the precipitation results in net infiltration. When alluvial cover is between depths of 25–50 cm and roughly 5 m, there is little or no net infiltration. Once the alluvial cover increases beyond 10 m, the semi-infinite infiltration rate is recovered. The hydraulic properties of the fracture continuum have little impact on the infiltration behavior, as long as the equivalent fracture porosity is above a minimum value.

Analysis of Two-Phase Stratified Flow and Liquid Hold Up at Dead Ends of T-Sectioned Natural Gas Pipelines

T-sectioned configurations with a deadleg at the stopple are present in natural gas pipelines, where liquid water may accumulate, increasing the potential for internal corrosion. The objectives of the present study are to explore the pipeline operating conditions under which water enters the deadleg and define an operating protocol to prevent water accumulation in deadlegs. A combined computational fluid dynamics (CFD) experimental and analytical study was conducted to understand the behavior of liquid slugs at the T-junctions with dead ends. The flow equations were solved as an unsteady multiphase (gas and water) incompressible flow problem using the Volume of Fluid (VoF) Method. The analytical calculations were based on a modified form of the macroscopic mechanical energy balance equation. In order to computationally simulate the critical velocity at which water enters the deadleg, the inlet gas flow rate was specified to be a fixed value, while the water flow rate was gradually increased. The liquid entirely bypasses the deadleg until the liquid water velocity exceeds a critical value, which was noted as the critical superficial liquid velocity. The experimental study was conducted using a flow loop to understand the behavior of liquid water at the T-junction and determine the condition when liquid enters the deadleg. The analytical and computed solutions were compared with experimental observations. The computed results follow the same pattern as the experimental and analytical data. Solutions indicate that critical superficial liquid velocity is linearly dependent on superficial inlet gas velocity.Copyright

Reply to comment by Stefan Finsterle on “Seepage into drifts and tunnels in unsaturated fractured rock”

Keywords: Flow ; Cavities Reference EPFL-ARTICLE-168697doi:10.1029/2006WR005008 Record created on 2011-09-05, modified on 2016-08-09