| 1. |
- Hudson, John A., et al.
(författare)
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Characterising and modelling the excavation damaged zone in crystalline rock in the context of radioactive waste disposal
- 2009
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Ingår i: Environmental Geology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0943-0105 .- 1432-0495. ; 57:6, s. 1275-1297
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper describes current knowledge about the nature of and potential for thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical modelling of the excavation damaged zone (EDZ) around the excavations for an underground radioactive waste repository. In the first part of the paper, the disturbances associated with excavation are explained, together with reviews of Workshops that have been held on the subject. In the second part of the paper, the results of a DECOVALEX [DEmonstration of COupled models and their VALidation against EXperiment: research funded by an international consortium of radioactive waste regulators and implementers (http://www.decovalex.com)] research programme on modelling the EDZ are presented. Four research teams used four different models to simulate the complete stress-strain curve for Avro granite from the Swedish A"spo Hard Rock Laboratory. Subsequent research extended the work to computer simulation of the evolution of the repository using a 'wall-block model' and a 'near-field model'. This included assessing the evolution of stress, failure and permeability and time-dependent effects during repository evolution. As discussed, all the computer models are well suited to sensitivity studies for evaluating the influence of their respective supporting parameters on the complete stress-strain curve for rock and for modelling the EDZ.
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| 2. |
- Koyama, Tomofumi, et al.
(författare)
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Numerical modelling of fluid flow tests in a rock fracture with a special algorithm for contact areas
- 2009
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Ingår i: Computers and geotechnics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0266-352X .- 1873-7633. ; 36:1-2, s. 291-303
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The fluid flow in rock fractures during shear processes has been all important issue in rock mechanics and is investigated in this paper using finite element method (FEM), considering evolutions of aperture and transmissivity with shear displacement histories under different normal stress and normal stiffness conditions as measured during laboratory coupled shear-flow tests. The distributions of fracture aperture and its evolution during shearing were calculated from the initial aperture, based on the laser-scanned sample surface roughness results, and shear dilations measured in the laboratory tests. Three normal loading conditions were adopted in the tests: simple normal stress and mixed normal stress and normal stiffness to reflect more realistic in situ conditions. A special algorithm for treatment of the contact areas as zero-aperture elements was used to produce more accurate flow field simulations, which is important for continued simulations of particle transport but often not properly treated in literature. The simulation results agree well with the measured hydraulic apertures and flow rate data obtained from the laboratory tests, showing that complex histories of fracture aperture and tortuous flow fields with changing normal loading conditions and increasing shear displacements. With the new algorithm for contact areas, the tortuous flow fields and channeling effects under normal stress/stiffness conditions during shearing were more realistically captured, which is not possible if traditional techniques by assuming very small aperture values for the contact areas were used. These findings have an important impact on the interpretation of the results of coupled hydro-mechanical experiments of rock fractures, and on more realistic simulations of particle transport processes in fractured rocks.
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| 3. |
- Rutqvist, Jonny, et al.
(författare)
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A multiple-code simulation study of the long-term EDZ evolution of geological nuclear waste repositories
- 2009
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Ingår i: Environmental Geology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0943-0105 .- 1432-0495. ; 57:6, s. 1313-1324
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This simulation study shows how widely different model approaches can be adapted to model the evolution of the excavation disturbed zone (EDZ) around a heated nuclear waste emplacement drift in fractured rock. The study includes modeling of coupled thermal-hydrological-mechanical (THM) processes, with simplified consideration of chemical coupling in terms of time-dependent strength degradation or subcritical crack growth. The different model approaches applied in this study include boundary element, finite element, finite difference, particle mechanics, and elasto-plastic cellular automata methods. The simulation results indicate that thermally induced differential stresses near the top of the emplacement drift may cause progressive failure and permeability changes during the first 100 years (i.e., after emplacement and drift closure). Moreover, the results indicate that time-dependent mechanical changes may play only a small role during the first 100 years of increasing temperature and thermal stress, whereas such time-dependency is insignificant after peak temperature, because of decreasing thermal stress.
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