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Environmental and energy geotechnics

Type of study Follow-up Master
Language of instruction English
Code 224-0255/02
Abbreviation EEG
Course title Environmental and energy geotechnics
Credits 5
Coordinating department Department of Geotechnics and Underground Engineering
Course coordinator prof. Ing. Naďa Rapantová, CSc.

Subject syllabus

Lectures:
1. Geotechnics and the environment. Impact of building structures on individual components of the environment (geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, etc.).
2. Geotechnical risk assessment, management and sustainability. Risks and their evaluation - types of risks, risk management. Baseline ("Baseline") study. Environmental Impact Assessment EIA, Risk Analysis, Feasibility Study.
3. Geohazards. Types of geohazards - endogenous and exogenous (eg earthquakes, slope instability - landslides, floods, droughts). Survey, critical assessment. Preventive and reparative measures.
4. Soil and groundwater contamination. Sources of contamination, types of contaminants. Mobility of contaminants, transport mechanisms.
5. Investigation of contaminated sites, soil and water sampling. Remediation - Selection of the remedial method (In-situ methods, Ex situ, Containment reactive barriers, etc.).
6.-7.Construction of waste dumps (including mining). Types of waste, characterization and properties. Design of engineering barriers - covers, liners, underground impermeable walls. Application of geosynthetics in geo-environmental engineering - geotextiles, geocomposites, geomembranes, geosynthetic clay liners. Structural elements - stability of geotechnical structures of landfills (modification of slopes). Environmental impacts of landfills and their elimination (degassing, closure - remediation).
8.-9. Environmental impacts of mining activities – abandonment of mines. Mining waste - tailings, tailings dams, leaching fields - construction and remediation. Geotechnical problems of mining activities - stability of quarry walls - dewatering ("depressurization"). Environmental impacts of abandoned mines - flooding, shafts stability, gas emanations.
10. Monitoring of legacies from mining, potential use of old mine workings and mine water.
11. Energy geotechnics. Low-potential (shallow) and high-potential (deep) geothermal systems. Exploitation of geothermal energy - open-loop and closed-loop systems.
12. Thermal energy storage in the rock environment (BTES, ATES).
13-14. Possibilities of exploitation and storage of heat through geotechnical constructions, foundation structures (eg energy piles), underground structures (eg heat exchangers in tunnel lining), earth structures (horizontal heat exchangers).

Practical training:
1.- 4.Development project of municipal waste landfills.
5.-7. Calculations of contaminant transport in groundwater - analytical calculations, including using freeware BIONAPL, BIOPLUME, etc.
8-12. Designing a system of drilling heat exchangers.
13-14. Literature review on the selected topic in the field of environmental and energy geotechnics.

Literature

Sarsby, Robert W.. (2013). Environmental Geotechnics (2nd Edition). ICE Publishing. Online version available at: https://app.knovel.com/hotlink/toc/id:kpEGE00003/environmental-geotechnics/environmental-geotechnics.
Laloui, L., & Di Donna, A. (Eds.). (2019). Energy Geotechnics: SEG-2018. Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering.
Laloui, L., & Di Donna, A. (Eds.). (2021). Advances in Energy Geotechnics. Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering.
Kolo, I., Brown, C. S., Nibbs, W., Cai, W., Falcone, G., Nagel, T., & Chen, C. (2024). A comprehensive review of deep borehole heat exchangers (DBHEs): subsurface modelling studies and applications. Geothermal Energy, 12.
Chen, H., & Tomac, I. (2023). Technical review on coaxial deep borehole heat exchanger. Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources.

CIBSE. (2013). Ground Source Heat Pumps - CIBSE TM51: 2013. CIBSE. Online version available at: https://app.knovel.com/hotlink/toc/id:kpGSHPCIBE/ground-source-heat-pumps/ground-source-heat-pumps

Advised literature

Laloui, L., & Di Donna, A. (2013). Energy Geostructures: Innovation in Underground Engineering. Wiley-ISTE.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118761779
Brandl, H. (2006). Energy foundations and other thermo-active ground structures. Géotechnique, 56(2), 81–122.

Selected publications from journal Environmental Geotechnics E-ISSN 2051-803X 
Brandon, Thomas L. Valentine, Richard J.. (2017). Geotechnical Frontiers 2017 - Geotechnical Materials, Modeling, and Testing - Selected Papers from Sessions of Geotechnical Frontiers 2017, March 12-15, 2017, Orlando, Florida. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Online version available at: https://app.knovel.com/hotlink/toc/id:kpGFGMMTS6/geotechnical-frontiers/geotechnical-frontiers
Toth, Aniko Bobok, Elemer. (2017). Flow and Heat Transfer in Geothermal Systems - Basic Equations for Describing and Modeling Geothermal Phenomena and Technologies. Elsevier. Online version available at:https://app.knovel.com/hotlink/toc/id:kpFHTGSBE7/flow-heat-transfer-in/flow-heat-transfer-in