Influence of Water Saturation on Curtain Formation of Frozen Wall

Abstract

In the process of in situ mining of underground oil shale, it is necessary to build an underground frozen wall around the mining area to prevent the inflow of groundwater and prevent oil and gas leakage. However, the water saturation of the frozen soil affects the formation of the freezing circle. In practical engineering, when building a frozen wall in soil under different water saturation conditions, the curtain is often not closed. It also affects the construction and operating costs of the entire project. In this paper, the methods of laboratory experiments and numerical simulation analysis are supplemented by the analysis of ordinary differential equations and partial differential equations. Aiming at the lowest cost, the temperature drop process and freezing time around the frozen well under different water saturation conditions are calculated and analyzed in detail. The formation law of the frozen wall curtain under different water saturation conditions is obtained. It provides a reference for the setting of the low-temperature loading time and the oil shale extraction range of frozen wells for different soils in practical engineering.