• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.53-62
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• 2024

Recently, development of non-traditional energy such as oil sands has been actively conducted in the cold region such as Canada. Frozen soil has different thermal and mechanical characteristics from general soil due to its high organic contents. This study evaluated the impact of organic matter content on the thermal and mechanical behavior of frozen soil samples collected from Alberta, Canada, and Gangwon Province, South Korea. As the organic content increases, the maximum dry unit weight decreases and the optimum moisture content increases in compaction tests. In uniaxial compression tests under frozen conditions, the strength of the frozen specimens increased as the temperature decreased. The strength of Canada soil sample increased with higher organic matter content at low temperatures. However, the strength of frozen soil was not significantly affected by organic matter content due to the complex behavior and unfrozen water content. Thermal conductivity tests showed higher thermal conductivity in frozen conditions compared to unfrozen conditions, due to the higher thermal conductivity of ice compared to water. These findings provide essential data for geotechnical design and construction in large-scale projects such as oil sands development in cold regions. Further research is needed to explore the impact of organic matter content on different types of frozen soils.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.31-38
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• 2015

Recently, the participation on the development of the natural gas pipeline in Russia as well as the recent construction of the second Korean Antarctic research station, the Jangbogo station provide the research interests on the behavior of the permafrost ground. To investigate the effect of fines on the mechanical responses of frozen sands, unconfined compression tests were performed on the frozen sands with 0, 5, 10 and 15% of fine contents at -5, -10 and $-15^{\circ}C$. The poorly graded (SP) Joomunjin sand and kaolinite, silt with low plasticity (ML) were used for the preparation of the frozen soil specimens. The mechanical responses of the tested soils were investigated via unconfined compression tests in the temperature controlled laboratory and analyzed in terms of peak unconfined compressive strength and secant modulus at 50% of the peak strength. As the fine contents increase, the unfrozen water contents increase and thus the strength and stiffness of frozen soils decrease. The increment of the stiffness and strength due to the temperature decrease vary with the fine contents.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.71-80
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• 2010

Korea is considered to be a seasonal frozen soil area that thaws in the spring, and freezes in winter. In the current design codes for anti-freezing layer, the thickness of anti-freezing layer is calculated by the depth frozen due to the temperature condition. Therefore, there is a tendency of over-design and applying uniform thickness without the consideration of thermal stability, bearing capacity and frost susceptibility of materials. So, it is essential to study the structural appropriateness of pavement layer and bearing capacity besides the seasonal and mechanical properties of pavement materials to take an appropriate and reasonable design of the road structure. In this paper, the evaluation of frost susceptibility on subgrade, ant-freezing layer, subbase was conducted by means of the mechanical characteristics and model experiment. The temperature, heaving amount, unfrozen water contents and freezing depth of soil samples, the subgrade, anti-freezing layer, subbase soils of road construction site were measured to determine the frost susceptibility.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.39-48
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• 2023

Over 100 countries have conducted research on experimental testing methods to assess the frost susceptibility of soils. This study aims to prevent structural damage caused by frost heave. Notably, the United States and Japan, which encompass cold regions such as Alaska and Hokkaido, have actively pursued frost heave research. Through laboratory investigations and field applications, standard testing methods and criteria for evaluating frost susceptibility have been established. However, these methods are complex and their engineering explanations are vague. This study closely compares and analyzes the frost-susceptibility testing methods proposed by ASTM and JGS, considering temperature conditions, specimen size, freezing direction, and drainage conditions. By conducting this comparative analysis, this study aims to shed light on the similarities and differences between the two methods. Furthermore, based on the findings, this study proposes future research guidance for refining frost-susceptibility testing methods and criteria.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.45-53
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• 2013

Global warming causes sea levels to rise and global changes apparently taking place including coastline changes. Coastline change due to sea level rise is also one of the most significant phenomena affected by global climate change. Accordingly, Coastline change detection can be utilized as an indicator of representing global climate change. Generally, Coastline change has happened mainly because of not only sea level rise but also artificial factor that is reclaimed land development by mud flat reclamation. However, Arctic coastal areas have been experienced serious change mostly due to sea level rise rather than other factors. The purposes of this study are automatic extraction of coastline and identifying change. In this study, in order to extract coastline automatically, contrast of the water and the land was maximized utilizing modified NDWI(Normalized Difference Water Index) and it made automatic extraction of coastline possibile. The imagery converted into modified NDWI were applied image processing techniques in order that appropriate threshold value can be found automatically to separate the water and land. Then the coastline was extracted through edge detection algorithm and changes were detected using extracted coastlines. Without the help of other data, automatic extraction of coastlines using LANDSAT was possible and similarity was found by comparing NLCD data as a reference data. Also, the results of the study area that is permafrost always frozen below $0^{\circ}C$ showed quantitative changes of the coastline and verified that the change was accelerated.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.890-893
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• 2012

Gas hydrates are solid crystal structures formed by enclathration of gaseous guest species into 3-dimensional lattice structure of hydrogen-bonded water molecules. These compounds can be potentially used as an energy storage/transportation medium because they can hold a large amount of gas in a small volume of the solid phase. In addition, huge amount of natural gas, buried in seabeds or permafrost region in the form of the solid hydrate, is regarded as a future energy source. In this study, synthesized natural gas, whose composition is 90.0 mol% of methane, 7.0 mol% of ethane, and 3.0 mol% of propane, was used to identify formation behaviors of natural gas hydrates for the purpose of applying the gas hydrate to a storage/transportation medium of natural gas. According to the experimental results obtained by means of the solid-state NMR and high-resolution powder XRD methods, it is found that formed natural gas hydrates have crystal structure of the structure-II hydrate, and that methane occupies both small and large cages, while the others only occupy large ones. In addition, both the NMR spectroscopy and the gas chromatograph showed that there exists preferential occupation among the natural gas components during the hydrate formation. Compositional changes after the hydrate formation revealed that the preferential occupation is in order of propane, ethane, and methane (propane is the most preferential guest species when forming natural gas hydrates).

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.275-289
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• 2014

Recent scaled-up onshore and offshore field production tests revealed that the expectancy to produce gas from the gas hydrate deposits is gradually increasing, recognizing its potentials as one of the future energy resources. The total produced gas was approximately $480m^3$ by the hot water circulation method for 6 days' operation in Mallik 2002 project in Canada. In Mallik 2006-2008 project, the gas was successfully produced stably by the depressurization method for 6 days, up to $13,000m^3$ cumulatively. The depressurization method applied in the Mallik test was revealed as an effective way to produce gas from gas hydrates. The Alaska North Slope field trial in 2012 to inject mixed gas of $CO_2$ and $N_2$ to exchange $CH_4$ was successfully completed for the first time to produce maximum $1,270m^3$ per day. The remarkable achievement is that Japan has completed first offshore production test in the Eastern Nankai Trough, and produced approximately $120,000m^3$ of methane by the depressurization method for 6 days in March 2013. The technical challenges and uncertainties obtained from Nankai Trough production test give Korea more considerations in the aspects of well completion, reservoir formation and seafloor stability, sand control, flow assurance, and etc., due to the different geological environments and geomechnical properties in Ulleung Basin in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.139-151
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• 2022

SAGD (Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage) method is widely used for oil recovery in oil sands regions. The SAGD operation causes surface displacement, which can affect the stability of oil recovery plants and trigger various geological disasters. Therefore, it isimportant to monitor the surface displacement due to SAGD in the oil sands region. In this study, the surface displacement due to SAGD operations of the Athabasca oil sands region in Alberta, Canada, was observed by applying Permanent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PSInSAR) technique to the Sentinel-1 time series SAR data acquired from 2016 to 2021. We also investigated the construction and expansion of SAGD facilitiesfrom Landsat-7/8 time seriesimages, from which the characteristics of the surface displacement according to the oil production activity of SAGD were analyzed. Uplift rates of 0.3-2.5 cm/yr in the direction of line of sight were observed over the SAGDs and their vicinity, whereas subsidence rates of -0.3--0.6 cm/yr were observed in areas more than several kilometers away from the SAGDs and not affected by oil recovery activities. Through the analysis of Landsat-7/8 images, we could confirm that the SAGDs operating after 2012 and showing high oil production activity caused uplift rates greater than 1.6 cm/yr due to the subsurface steam injection. Meanwhile, very small uplift rates of several mm per year occurred over SAGDs which have been operated for a longer period of time and show relatively low oil production activity. This was probably due to the compression of reservoir sandstone due to continuous oil recovery. The subsidence observed in areas except for the SAGDs and their vicinity estimated to be a gradual land subsidence caused by melting of the permafrost. Considering the subsidence, it was expected that the uplift due to SAGD operation would be greater than that observed by the PSInSAR. The results of this study confirm that the PSInSAR can be used as an effective means for evaluating productivity and stability of SAGD in the extreme cold regions.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.7 no.1_2 s.8
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• pp.1-6
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• 1999

Natural gas hydrate, a solid compound of natural gas (mainly methane) and water in the low temperature and high pressure, is widely distributed in permafrost region and deep sea sediments. Gas hydrate stability field (GHSF), which corresponds to the conditions of a stable existence of solid gas hydrate without dissociation, depends on temperature, pressure, and composition of gas and interstitial water. Gas hydrate-saturated sediment are easily recognized by the bottom simulating reflector (BSR), a strong-amplitude sea bottom-mimic reflector in seismic profiles. It is known that BSR is associated with the basal boundary of the GHSF, The purpose of this study is to define the GHSF and its occurrence in the southwestern part of Ulleung Basin, East Sea. The hydrothermal gradient is measured using the expandable bathythermograph (XBT) and the geothermal gradient data are utilized from previous drilling results for the adjacent area. By the laboratory work using methane and NaCl $3.0 wt{\%}$ solution, it is shown that the equilibrium pressures of the gas hydrate reach to 2,920.2 kPa at 274.15 K and to 18,090 kPa at 289.95 K for the study area. Consequently, it is interpreted that the lower boundary of the GHSF is about 210 m beneath 400-m-deep sea bottom and about 480 m beneath 1,100-m-deep sea bottom. The resultant boundary is well matched with the depth of the BSR obtained from the seismic data analysis for the study area.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2006

The shortage of proven hydrocarbon reserves has resulted in exploration progressing from the offshore into progressively deeper water of the continental shelf. Despite the success of seismic acquisition at ever greater depths, there are marine geological terrenes in which the interpretation of seismic data is difficult, such regions dominated by scattering or high reflectivity that is characteristic of carbonate reefs, volcanic cover and submarine permafrost. A marine controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) method has recently been applied to the oil and gas exploration thanks to its high-resistivity characteristics of the hydrocarbon. In particular, this method produces better results in terms of sensitivity under the deep water environment rather than the shallow water. Only in the last five years has the relevance of CSEM been recognized by oil companies who now use it to help them make exploration drilling decisions. Initial results are most promising and several contractors now offer magnetotelluric and CSEM services.