Analyses of non-aqueous reactive polymer insulation layer in high geothermal tunnel

The scenario of geothermal tunnel is commonly observed around the world, and increases with the new constructions in the long and deep tunnels, for example in China. Tunnel insulation is generally divided into active and passive insulation. In passive insulation, it is an effective way to set low thermal conductivity materials as the thermal insulation layer as the choice of insulation material mainly depends on the thermal conductivity. Polymer is a kind of material with good geothermal performance, but there are relatively few studies. In this context, the transient plane source (TPS) method was used to measure the thermal conductivity of the developed polymer. Then, the temperature field of the high geothermal tunnel insulated by the non-aqueous reactive polymer layer was simulated. With the parametric analysis results, the suggestions for the tunnel layers were proposed accordingly. It revealed that the thermal conductivity of polymer first increases and then decreases with temperature. There are two rising sections (-40–10 °C and 20–90 °C), one flat section (10–20 °C) and one descending section (>90 °C). It is observed the thermal conductivity of polymer increases with increase of the density of insulation layer and the density, and the thermal conductivity decreases when exposed to high temperatures. The temperature of the surrounding rocks increases with increase of the thermal conductivity and the thickness of polymer. Finally, a more economical thickness (5 cm) was proposed. Based on the parametric study, a thermal insulation layer with thermal conductivity less than 0.045 W/(m K), thickness of 5 cm and a density less than 0.12 g/cm 3 is suggested for practice. • The non-aqueous reactive polymer can be applied in high geothermal tunnel with good insulation performance. • The parameters (i.e., thermal conductivity, thickness and density) on the tunnel temperature field have been analyzed. • Reasonable parameters for polymer insulation layer in practice were suggested for tunnel engineering. • When the thermal conductivity is lower than 0.045 W/(m·K), the heat insulation effect is the most significant. • When thickness is about 5 cm, the polymer layer shows best heat insulation performance.