Datasets described herein belong to chapter 5: The evolution of compressibility, stiffness, and thermal conductivity of oil sands.
As part of a PhD thesis: Physical Properties of Geomaterials with Relevance to Thermal Energy Geo-systems
By Shahrzad Roshankhah
May 2015
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This readme file describes the data excel file named:
Roshankhah-2015-Physical Properties of Geomaterials-CH5-Oil Sand-Stiffness & Thermal Conductivity vs. Stress & Temperature
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This file contains 2 sheets of processed data for the evolution of small-strain shear stiffness (represented by shear wave velocity VS [m.s-1]) and mid-strain stiffness (represented by the compression index Cc) and thermal conductivity k [W.m-1.K-1] of oil sand under variable vertical stress and temperature.
The sheet named “plots” presents the evolution of void ratio, thermal conductivity, elastic wave velocities and the frequency of shear and compressional waves with stress and temperature.
The sheet named “creep” presents the deformation of several specimens at various temperatures under the highest vertical stress (~19 MPa).
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No acronym/abbreviation has been used. 
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All parameters have been shown by their full title and SI units including:
Vertical effective Stress σ’ [MPa]
Vertical Strain εv = Normalized Settlement s/Ho
Initial void ratio eo
Void Ratio e
Compression index Cc
Thermal conductivity k [W.m-1.K-1]
Shear Wave Velocity VS [m.s-1]
Compressional Wave Velocity VP [m.s-1]
Other parameters are introduced with the equations below used for data reduction.
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Settlement gauge (LVDT, Trans-TEK) resolution at high temperature: 0.025 mm
Settlement gauge (LVDT, Trans-TEK) resolution at room temperature: infinite
Temperature gauge (Thermistor 10 kΩ) resolution at high temperature: 0.03 ˚C
Temperature gauge (Thermistor 10 kΩ) resolution at room temperature: 0.01 ˚C
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Experiments were conducted at room temperature and elevated temperatures, as specified, under variable vertical effective stress and zero lateral strain.
Agilent datalogger 34970A was used to record temperature evolution over time by the built in thermistor inside the thermal needle probe during vertical loading and unloading of the specimen. 
A short (2 minutes) heat pulse (2 V) was imposed at every stress level by a DC power supply E3630A to the heating wire located inside the thermal needle probe.
Agilent datalogger 34970A was used to record the settlement of specimen by means of voltage difference created in the LVDT.
Agilent waveform generator 33250A was used to create a pulse vibration in the source bender element (top) with the frequency 20 Hz and the amplitude 10 Vpeak-to-peak.
Parallel type of brass reinforced, piezo-electric bending actuators are used as bender elements. They convert the imposed voltage to mechanical vibration and vice versa as the source and receiver transducers, respectively. 
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Dada reduction for thermal conductivity k [W.m-1.K-1] has been done using the slope of the linear part of temperature T [˚C] vs. logarithm of time log(t/1[s]) and the imposed power per unit length of heating wire Q=VI/L [W.m-1] based on the following equation:
k=Q/4π  (log⁡(t_2⁄t_1 ))/(T_2-T_1 )
Data reduction for wet and dry mass density ρt and ρdry [kg.m-3] has been done by measuring the settlement of the specimen δ [m], specimen mass m [kg], specimen initial height Ho [m], specimen diameter D [m] and the measures liquid content of the oil sand (w = 0.164):
ρ_t=m/(π/4 D^2 (H_o-δ) )
ρ_dry=ρ_t/(1+w)
Void ratio e is calculated by measured specific gravity Gs = 2.74, assumed water mass density ρw = 1000 kg.m-3 and calculated dry mass density ρdry [kg.m-3] in the previous step:
e=(G_s.ρ_w)/ρ_dry -1
The shear wave velocity VS [m.s-1] is calculated by measuring the initial distance between the top and bottom bender elements dbeo [m] and updating it by specimen settlement δ [m] and the first arrival time of shear waves tSa [s]:
V_S=d_be/t_Sa 
Similarly for compressional wave velocity VP [m.s-1]:
V_P=d_be/t_Pa 
Normalized settlement of the specimen is calculated by its initial void ratio eo, evolving void ratio e and the specific volume of the specimen 1+eo:
s/H_o =(e_o-e)/(1+e_o )
The compression index of the specimen is calculated by the following equation using its void ratio at 3 MPa and 19 MPa:
C_c=(e_1-e_2)/(log(〖σ'〗_2/1kPa)-log(〖σ'〗_1/1kPa) )
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The thermal needle probe used to measure the thermal conductivity was calibrated by a stabilized water specimen based on ASTM Standard 5334, 2008 at room temperature (kw = 0.6 W.m-1.K-1) and by a glycerol specimen at 70 ˚C (kg = --- W.m-1.K-1).
The LVDT used to measure the settlement of the specimen was calibrated both at room temperature (22 ˚C) and at elevated temperature (70 ˚C). Temperature does not affect the LVDT’s response (operational temperature: -54 to 121 ˚C). The relationship between the displacement d [mm] and voltage [V] resulted from calibrations:
d = 13.3V + 35.6
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Microsoft excel was used to analyze the data.