Effect of the physical properties on the thermal conductivity of marine sediments

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The thermal properties of soils and rocks are a key parameter for the proper design of thermally active ground structures such as geothermal energy foundations, borehole heat exchange systems, energy geo-storage and deep geological disposal of heat-emitting and long-lived radioactive waste deposits, etc. In case of offshore renewable energy systems, there has been an increase of site investigations due to the proliferation of offshore wind farms and electrical submarine trans-national interconnections grids around the world. In these cases, both the geotechnical parameters and thermal properties are relevant for the design of the geometry and the insulation type for each cable as well as for the cable burial assessment. Nevertheless, the evaluation of the thermal properties is not an easy task since they are very sensitive to other parameters such as the particle size distribution, moisture content, density, organic content and mineralogy of the sample, among others. In this paper, the results of a laboratory campaign on different soils collected in marine site investigations related to offshore wind farms and electrical interconnections around Europe and the Gulf of Guinea are presented. Samples were characterized by means of common geotechnical tests. The influence of the thermal balancing effect, moisture content and the dry density on the thermal conductivity/resistivity was evaluated by a series of tests at different soil conditions. The thermal conductivity measured in this study is an initial database for marine soils which might be used in geo-energy related projects with a null or limited number of reliable thermal measurements.

9th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG2023)

Advances in Testing and Material Characterization