The newly installed fluidization laboratory seeks to investigate the dynamics of gas flow through porous media in both terrestrial and marine environments. Experimental apparatus includes a range of planar and cylindrical tanks, designed to simulate gas-particle interaction in 2D and 3D situations. The tanks are supplied with compressed air, via a pressure regulator and grid of Platon flow meters with a maximum capacity of ~850 litres/min. This has many diverse applications, including assessment of gas flux from carbon storage facilities, and simulations of geophysical flows such as pyroclastic density currents.

 

The most recent addition to the lab, funded by an EPSRC ‘Bridging the Gaps’ grant, is a state-of-the-art large-scale sediment testing tank (2.5 x 2 x 0.1 m, 1 tonne capacity), which currently is being used for validation of subsea high voltage (HV) cable operation. Key to this research is a full investigation of the thermal, mechanical and chemical response of sediments to heating by a HV cable, and the subsequent changes in physical properties of the sub-seabed (size, size distribution, porosity, permeability) around these HV cables. To facilitate this testing, the tank is highly insulated with water temperature regulated by a Titan 500 water cooling system, and continuously monitored by an extensive grid array of approximately 200 thermocouples linked to channel relay multiplexers and a Campbell Scientific CR1000 measurement and control module and PC. The tank comprises a removable cylindrical aluminium heat source (HV cable analogue) linked to a voltage/temperature controller monitored by a HAMEG power meter.