Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

ConeTec is an international site investigation company with specialization in the design and use of in-situ soilx000D
testing equipment including a wide range of cone penetration testing (CPT) probes and sampling systems.x000D
ConeTec is currently one of the service providers for the oil sands operators in Alberta. The oil sands operatorsx000D
need CPT for geotechnical characterization of tailings. In regards to geotechnical characterization of tailings,x000D
estimation of the swelling potential of clays is of great importance for the management of tailings. The activityx000D
of clays significantly affects the settling and consolidation of tailings and the geotechnical stability of a finalx000D
tailings deposit for reclamation purposes. The activity of oil sands tailings solids is typically determined usingx000D
the methylene blue index (MBI), an analytical technique that quantifies the ionic absorption capacity of ax000D
sample. Currently, ConeTec needs to collect samples from different depths of the tailings ponds that are thenx000D
sent to commercial laboratories for the estimation of the tailings MBI. This procedure is costly and timex000D
consuming. Dr. Rivard's research group at the University of Alberta (UofA) has investigated the use of spectralx000D
sensors for tailings characterization. This research has laid the foundation to establish a quick and reliablex000D
in-situ method for determining the MBI of tailings based on hyperspectral observations. Consequently ConeTecx000D
is interested in integrating a hyperspectral sensor in their CPT probes for the downhole estimation of MBI. Inx000D
such case, the spectral measurements would be collected through a sapphire window embedded in the CPTx000D
probe. The proposed work is therefore a feasibility study to address the challenge of collecting spectralx000D
measurements of tailings through a sapphire window and assess the quality of such data for the purpose of MBIx000D
estimation.