Thermal pollution

Summary

Thermal pollution, sometimes called "thermal enrichment", is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature. Thermal pollution is the rise or drop in the temperature of a natural body of water caused by human influence. Thermal pollution, unlike chemical pollution, results in a change in the physical properties of water. A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers. Urban runoff—stormwater discharged to surface waters from rooftops, roads, and parking lots—and reservoirs can also be a source of thermal pollution. Thermal pollution can also be caused by the release of very cold water from the base of reservoirs into warmer rivers. When water used as a coolant is returned to the natural environment at a higher temperature, the sudden change in temperature decreases oxygen supply and affects ecosystem composition. Fish and other organisms adapted to particular temperature range

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_pollution

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Performance of a geothermal energy deicing system for bridge deck using a pile heat exchanger

Xiaohui Cheng, Gangqiang Kong, Lyesse Laloui, Hanlong Liu, Di Wu

In this study, a geothermal energy deicing system for bridge deck using a pile heat exchanger was developed, and the performance of this system was investigated under the conditions of snowfall. The structural response of the bridge deck during the deicing process was also analyzed. The slab temperature, air temperature, inlet and outlet circulating fluid temperature, and slab thermal strain were monitored during the test. The results show that the deicing system developed in this study was capable of accelerating the snow‐melting process even though no heat pump was employed in the deicing system. The deicing system was also suitable for anti‐icing in winter. In addition, the thermal effects of the deicing system on the structural response of the bridge deck could be ignored during the deicing process.

2018

Thermal effects on the mechanical behaviour of saturated clays

Cane Cekerevac

EPFL2003

Chemical Influence of Pore Pressure on Brine Flow in Clay-Rich Material

Etienne André Cassini, Roman Makhnenko, Danila Mylnikov

Hydromechanical properties of shales are complex due to the involved ma-terial structure, with the solid matrix being mainly formed by swelling clays and porosity dominated by nanometer scale tortuous voids with large aspect ratios. Intrinsic permeability of restructured Opalinus Clay (Swiss shale) brought to shallow geological storage conditions was measured with in situ brine. Under constant temperature, vertical stress, and downstream fluid pressure, steady-state flow experiments show a significant trend of permea-bility decrease with increasing differential (upstream minus downstream) fluid pressure, thus contradicting the conventional Darcy’s description. To interpret these experimental measurements, brine permeability is derived using a one-step self-consistent homogenization scheme based on the knowledge of material’s pore structure. While mechanical and thermal effects cannot ex-plain the permeability decrease, the trend is reproduced with the correct order of magnitude by considering a chemical effect: a pore size reduction in the sample due to water adsorption at mineral surface.

Springer International Publishing2017