Debasmita Misra

One of the arduous tasks in cold regional studies is estimating soil hydraulic properties, such as soil freezing characteristics and hydraulic conductivity, which are important when studying transport process in frozen soils. Costly data collection methods and existing isothermal models are limitations in understanding soil water dynamics in frozen soils. Pedotransfer functions have become a hot topic in the earth- and environmental-related sciences to predict soil physical and chemical properties easily, routinely, or cheaply for a specific non-frozen geographical region. Based on similarity between wetting and freezing processes in soil, we presented a new approach to derive soil freezing characteristics from soil water characteristics of non-frozen soils using existing pedotransfer functions. We considered a conventional soil water characteristic model and existing pedotransfer functions for determining the relationships; unfrozen water content vs. subzero temperature, and hydraulic conductivity vs. subzero temperature using Clapeyron equation. The proposed approach successfully predicted unfrozen water content and hydraulic conductivity for different soils when compared with those reported in the literature. Furthermore, effect of soil bulk density (porosity) on unfrozen water content and hydraulic conductivity at different subzero temperatures was discussed for range of soils.

The Arctic Energy Technology Development Laboratory was created by the University of Alaska Fairbanks in response to a congressionally mandated funding opportunity through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), specifically to encourage research partnerships between the university, the Alaskan energy industry, and the DOE. The enabling legislation permitted research in a broad variety of topics particularly of interest to Alaska, including providing more efficient and economical electrical power generation in rural villages, as well as research in coal, oil, and gas. The contract was managed as a cooperative research agreement, with active project monitoring and management from the DOE. In the eight years of this partnership, approximately 30 projects were funded and completed. These projects, which were selected using an industry panel of Alaskan energy industry engineers and managers, cover a wide range of topics, such as diesel engine efficiency, fuel cells, coal combustion, methane gas hydrates, heavy oil recovery, and water issues associated with ice road construction in the oil fields of the North Slope. Each project was managed as a separate DOE contract, and the final technical report for each completed project is included with this final report. The intent of this process was to address the energymore » research needs of Alaska and to develop research capability at the university. As such, the intent from the beginning of this process was to encourage development of partnerships and skills that would permit a transition to direct competitive funding opportunities managed from funding sources. This project has succeeded at both the individual project level and at the institutional development level, as many of the researchers at the university are currently submitting proposals to funding agencies, with some success.« less