The Little Ice Age signature and subsequent warming seen in borehole temperature logs versus solar forcing model

The ‘low’ in the transient temperature versus depth borehole profiles around 120 m seen from deep temperature logs in the Canadian Prairies (southern Alberta–southern Saskatchewan), as well as in some of the European data, has been interpreted to be related to the Little Ice Age (LIA). Data point to the lowest ground surface and subsurface temperatures occurring in the very late eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. Inversion of these logs shows that surface temperature lows were followed by a recent warming period. Further, the synthetic profiles built on the basis of solar forcing history, stretching as far back as the beginning of the seventeenth century, suggest that the LIA signatures interpreted from the inversion of the borehole temperature logs would be difficult to be explained by known published models of past solar irradiation despite large range of assumed sensitivities for the couplings assumed, and that further forcing needs to be considered.     

An integrative geothermal resource assessment study for the siliciclastic Granite Wash Unit,northwestern Alberta (Canada)

This study explores the siliciclastic Granite Wash Unit in northwestern Alberta as a potential geothermal reservoir. The approach covers regional 3D structural geological modelling of a 90 km × 70 km area based on well log and legacy 2D seismic data. The fault strike was interpreted from lineaments, which were identified with the refined trend surface analysis method. The stress state of the Granite Wash reservoirs was determined by an integrated approach of 3D fault modelling, stress ratio definition based on frictional constraints, and slip tendency analysis. The results show that the best site for a geothermal application is located in the southwestern study area, where the highest temperatures (above 70 °C) coincide with the largest thickness (above 20 m) and zones of elevated porosity and permeability. The integrated stress analysis indicates an in situ stress regime from normal to strike-slip faulting maintaining a non-critically stressed reservoir or faults therein, assuming a friction coefficient of 0.7. The granite wash reservoirs could be used for heating of greenhouses, domestic warm water provision and district heating.     

Finite element study of patterns of shear zones in granular bodies during plane strain compression

Numerical investigations of patterns of shear zones in granular bodies obtained during quasi-static plane strain compression tests were performed. The effect of a spatially correlated stochastic distribution of the initial void ratio and roughness of horizontal plates was analyzed. To describe a mechanical behavior of a cohesionless granular material during a monotonic deformation path in a plane strain compression test, a micro-polar hypoplastic constitutive model was used. FE calculations were carried out with both initially dense and initially loose cohesionless sand. A Latin hypercube method was applied to generate Gaussian truncated random fields of initial void ratio in a granular specimen. A weak correlation of the initial void ratio in both directions and its large standard deviation were assumed for all specimens. The horizontal boundaries were either ideally smooth or very rough. The FE results show similar patterns of shear zones as compared to experiments.     

Phase equilibria and compositions of Fe-Mg-Al minerals and melts in water-saturated peraluminous granitic systems

Phase assemblages and phase compositions were studied experimentally in water-saturated, biotite-bearing peraluminous granitic melts as a function of alumina excess and temperature. The runs were performed at 2 and 5 kbars under NNO buffer. Biotite was stable only in composition containing 5% of normative corundum; it coexisted with cordierite and hercynite at 2 kbars and with hercynite at 5 kbars. In composition containing 10% of normative corundum biotite was not observed; abundant cordierite and hercynite were the only Fe-Mg-Al minerals. These relationships show that, at constant pressure, the amount of cordierite increases with increasing excess of alumina. Simultaneously the stability of biotite decreases due to preferential partitioning of Mg into cordierite and Fe into biotite. Besides the distribution of Fe, Mg and Al among the coexisting solid phases, solubility of these elements in the melts is given. Below 900° C melts are poor in iron and magnesium and correspond, in terms of these elements, to leucogranites. It is suggested that the leucogranitic magmas, such as parental magmas of European Hercynian and Himalayan leucogranites, must have been formed through highly efficient separation of partial melt from restite, in which ferromagnesian components are concentrated. Peraluminous granites rich in ferromagnesian minerals originate supposedly from restite-bearing magmas.     

29Si and 27Al magic-angle-spinning NMR studies of the thermal transformation of kaolinite

Thermal transformations of kaolinite of different degree of crystallinity have been monitored by ²⁷Al and ²⁹Si high-resolution NMR with magic-angle spinning (MAS NMR), X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, atomic absorption spectrophotometry and thermogravimetric analysis. NMR shows differences in the dehydroxylation process of kaolinites with different degree of crystallinity and reveals the presence of short-range order in metakaolinite. ²⁹Si NMR spectra acquired with a 30 s recycle delay of poorly and highly crystalline samples heated at 480 and 500° C, respectively, contain three distinct signals; we discuss their assignment in the light of experiments involving leaching of the samples with aqueous KOH. Ca. 40% of Si sites retain their original Q ³ symmetry just above the onset of dehydroxylation and the Q ⁴ environment is present showing that a small amount of amorphous silica has already segregated. The spectrum of samples treated at 1000° C contains a signal at -110ppm (from Q ⁴ silicons) and a faint resonance, from mullite, at ca. -87 ppm. ²⁹Si NMR also shows that cristobalite germs are already present at 950–1000° C. The ²⁷Al MAS NMR spectra of metakaolinite reveal the presence of 4-, 5-and 6-coordinated Al. Changes in the three Al populations as a function of temperature have been monitored quantitatively. Below 800° C, 4-and 5-coordinated Al appears at the expense of 6-coordinated Al, but above 800° C the amount of 6-coordinated Al increases again. We suggest a dehydroxylation scheme which accounts for the presence of 4-and 5 coordinated Al. Above 900–950° C the latter signal is no longer present in the ²⁷Al NMR spectra and new 4-and 6-coordinated Al species (mullite and γ-alumina) appear. We propose new ideas for the structure of metakaolinite.     

Modelling hydraulic and capillary-driven two-phase fluid flow in unsaturated concretes at the meso-scale with a unique coupled DEM-CFD technique

The goal of the research was to demonstrate the impact of thin porous interfacial transition zones (ITZs) between aggregates and cement matrix on fluid flow in unsaturated concrete caused by hydraulic/capillary pressure. To demonstrate this impact, a novel coupled approach to simulate the two-phase (water and moist air) flow of hydraulically and capillary-driven fluid in unsaturated concrete was developed. By merging the discrete element method (DEM) with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) under isothermal settings, the process was numerically studied at the meso-scale in two-dimensional conditions. A flow network was used to describe fluid behaviour in a continuous domain between particles. Small concrete specimens of a simplified particle mesostructure were subjected to fully coupled hydro-mechanical simulation tests. A simple uniaxial compression test was used to calibrate the pure DEM represented by bonded spheres, while a permeability and sorptivity test for an assembly of spheres was used to calibrate the pure CFD. For simplified specimens of the pure cement matrix, cement matrix with aggregate, and cement matrix with aggregate and ITZ of a given thickness, DEM/CFD simulations were performed sequentially. The numerical results of permeability and sorptivity were directly compared to the data found in the literature. A satisfactory agreement was achieved. Porous ITZs in concrete were found to reduce sorption by slowing the capillary-driven fluid flow, and to speed the full saturation of pores when sufficiently high hydraulic water pressures were dominant.