Heat-induced moisture movement in a clay barrier II. Computational modelling and comparison with experimental results

The paper presents the application of a Galerkin finite-element technique for the numerical solution of the differential equations governing coupled heat flow and moisture movement in a clay buffer. Attention is focussed on the axisymmetric modelling of the hygro-thermal processes encountered in the single borehole emplacement configuration developed for laboratory simulation. The numerical results derived for the time-dependent temperature distributions within the granite block and the residual moisture distribution within the buffer are compared with the respective experimental results.