Simulation of water transport in heated rock salt

This final report contains the results of computer simulation studies on water transport in German rock salt. Based on Jockwer's experimental investigations on water content and water liberation, the object of this work was to select a water transport model that matches the water inflow which was measured in some heater experiments in the Asse salt mine. The main result is that an evaporation model with Knudsen type vapour transport combined with fluid transport by thermal expansion of the adsorbed water layers in the non-evaporated zone showed the best agreement with experimental evidence. An extrapolatory calculation for a borehole in a high-level waste repository showed that the water vapour inflow during the time of convergence of the initial gap between canister and borehole will not exceed 200 g per meter