Simulation software of artificial ground freezing

The planned special purpose software application simulates the growth of the ice-body considering the flowing ground water. It expands the range of using the artificial ground freezing with more reliable prediction allowing a more precise planning. It will simplify project planning and help to avoid mistakes and their associated costs.

Groundwater flow limits the use of artificial ground freezing as it slows down the growth of the ice-body or even prevents it, if it is too fast. Therefore the velocity of ground water flow is an important factor and has to take into account while projecting this soil consolidation procedure.

The numerical simulation of the two coupled fields (temperature and ground water) will be done by the finite element method in a given three-dimensional region. The distribution of the temperature is a function of time. Its development in time will be calculated considering convection caused by ground water flow and phase changing of water to ice and vice versa. The water pressure potential and the resulting flow of ground water is a function of both the permeability of the soil layers and the building of frozen soil. The material parameters, like heat conductivity, heat capacity, permeability, etc. are functions of the temperature.

The planned software does not involve soil mechanical calculations, because a good software (Z-Soil, Plaxis, etc.) already exists for this purpose. However, the results of our software will be used as input for selected soil mechanic programs.

Staff

Prof. Dr. Edoardo Anderheggen (Guideance)
Dr. Perry Bartelt (Guidance)
Anton Sres