Rochelle Widmer defends Masters Thesis

Masters candidate Rochelle Widmer successfully defended her Masters degree in Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering on June 24th, 2019. She is advised by Kimberly Hill of the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory and Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Rochelle is an active member of the SAFL Student Council, participated in educational outreach events at local schools, and was the 2019 Nels Nelson Memorial Fellowship recipient.

Congratulations Rochelle!

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Laboratory Studies of Segregation in Prograding Deltas of TSRU Tailings 

Rochelle Widmer, Masters Candidate in Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering
Advisor: Kimberly Hill, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering and St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota

We studied the segregation and depositional behaviors of TSRU tailings, a fine-grained waste material produced in the Alberta Oil Sands refining process, toward the long-term goal of faster, more effective environmental restoration. The research used both surrogate material and real tailings material. We will briefly present similarities between the flow, segregation, and depositional behaviors of these two materials that have also been reported in other, natural prograding deltas, and also some distinct differences in the behaviors of the TSRU tailings relevant to environmental restoration issues.