Underground Leakage into Freezing Ground

Abstract

Certrifuge model tests are used to identify the path of dyed ethylene glycol (antifreeze) when it leaks from a cylinder buried in freezing or frozen silt at different times during the freezing cycle. The paths followed are contrasted to the path followed by release of dyed water from the same cylinder in a model undergoing freezing, and in another model, to the path followed by release of the ethylene glycol from the cylinder into soil not subjected to freezing. When ethylene glycol is released after freezing has penetrated well below the elevation of the leak, it is contained, at least over that duration (simulating 0.4 years), by the surrounding ice rich frozen soil. The same behavior is observed when ethylene glycol is released into unfrozen soil that experiences no subsequent freezing. When ethylene glycol is released before freezing, subsequent freezing draws the contaminant vertically to the soil surface. When it is released as freezing is occurring at the elevation at which the ethylene glycol is released, its path is long and inclined upward, moving far from the point of injection; dyed water released at the same elevation and at the same point during the freezing process does not travel far from the point of injection before being frozen in place.