This paper intends to develop a generalized thermal conductivity model for moist soils that is based on the concept of normalized thermal conductivity with respect to dry and saturated states. This model integrates well the effects of porosity, degree of saturation, mineral content, grain-size distribution, and particle shape on the thermal conductivity of unfrozen and frozen soils. The thermal conductivity for saturated soils is computed with the use of a well-known geometric model that includes the unfrozen water content in frozen fine-grained soils. Nearly 220 experimental results available from the literature were analysed to develop a generalized empirical relationship to assess the thermal conductivity of dry soils. A general relationship between the normalized thermal conductivity of soils and the degree of saturation using a soil-type dependent factor was used to correlate the normalized thermal conductivity for more than 650 test results for unfrozen and frozen moist soils, such as gravels, sands, silts, clays, peat, and crushed rocks.Key words: heat transfer, soils, degree of saturation, mineral content, unfrozen–frozen, thermal conductivity.

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This paper presents the results of a comprehensive laboratory study on the thermal conductivity of dense and broadly graded coarse base-course materials used in pavements. Materials were selected from eight quarries along the axis of the St. Lawrence River to include a variety of samples of different geological origins. Nearly 200 tests were performed in a thermal conductivity cell using Pyrex heat flux meters to characterize the relationships between the thermal conductivity of unfrozen and frozen samples and the water–ice content. Sixteen tests were also performed on solid rock cylinders to characterize the influence of mineralogy on the thermal conductivity of solid particles from the selected quarries. The most widely used empirical prediction models for thermal conductivity of soils from the literature were found inappropriate to estimate the thermal conductivity of base-course materials. An improved model using the geometric mean method to compute the thermal conductivity for the solid particles and the saturated materials, a modified form of the geometric mean method to predict the thermal conductivity of dry materials, and empirical relationships to assess the normalized thermal conductivity of unfrozen and frozen base-course materials are presented. This new model predicted well the thermal conductivity for more than 150 unfrozen and frozen coarse sand and gravel samples from the literature. A step by step methodology is proposed to assess the thermal conductivity of base-course materials.Key words: base course, porosity, degree of saturation, mineralogy, unfrozen–frozen, thermal conductivity.

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In the hydropower industry, in situ maintenance work of turbine runners to address issues such as cavitation damage and cracking is mainly performed manually. Alternatively, the entire turbine requires disassembly and is repaired off site at greater cost. This paper presents the development and fundamentals of robotic technology designed to perform work in situ on hydroelectric equipment. A second paper surveys field implementations carried out with the technology over the past 15 years. A new portable manipulator was designed with unique track-based kinematics well suited to accessing turbine blades in a confined space. The robot is driven by position-controlled stepper motors but relies on a hybrid force/position controller to perform processes in contact with the work piece, such as grinding. A major obstacle for robotic repair is excessive programming time. As most work is done on curved surfaces, the robot relies on a model of curvilinear space for trajectory generation. The robot is coupled to an accurate measurement system to scan surface topography in three dimensions. It has been equipped to perform several processes, such as welding and grinding, to facilitate the manufacture and maintenance of hydropower equipment. Despite the robot's inaccuracy and flexibility, surface profiles may be reconstructed with great accuracy through the use of a controlled metal removal rate strategy that relies on an innovative dynamic model of the grinding process. C