Kayvan Karimi Askarani
PhD Candidate
Colorado State University
Kayvan Karimi Askarani is PhD candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. He earned his Master’s degree in Geotechnical Engineering in 2013. He is currently working on computational methods for transforming subsurface temperature data to Natural Source Zone Depletion rates at LNAPL impacted areas.
STUDENT POSTER PRESENTATION
Methods for Transforming Temperature Data to NSZD Rates
Subsurface monitoring of temperatures has emerged as a promising approach to resolve continuously NSZD rates. Thermal monitoring as an alternative approach for measuring real-time continuous NSZD rates offers the advantages of fewer biases due to climatic factors, reduced time spent at sites, and lower costs. To date, transformation of temperature data to Natural Source Zone Depletion (NSZD) rates has involved use of background corrected temperature data, an energy balance to resolve NSZD energy in terms of W/m2, and an estimate of heat produced through NSZD processes to resolve NSZD rates in terms of litter of LNAPL/hectare/year. Application of background corrected methods at four different site locations will provide insights regarding the validity and limitations of background correction approaches for transforming temperature data to NSZD rates. In addition, an alternative computational method for calculating thermal NSZD rates will be introduced that overcomes the primary limitations with conventional background corrected methods.