Modeling the Äspö Pillar stability experiment

• This paper presents results of the 1st stages ofTaskAof the Decovalex 2011 project, the numerical modeling of the Äspö Pillar Stability experiment performed by the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory of the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB). The objective is to perform back calculation of the Äspö pillar behavior using state of the art numerical modeling techniques for the material behavior. The work is divided into three stages and it is the first stage of thework that will be presented in this paper. Seven international teams from six different countries participated in the task and contributed to the results presented in this paper, concerning back calculation of uniaxial and triaxial compressive core testing and elastic back calculation of the stress path for excavation-induced stresses. The results are useful for understanding the occurrence of spalling in the upper part of the pillar during excavation and the stress path modeling gives the first approximation of the yielding strength of the pillar. The calculated results agree well with observations measured during experiment.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Geologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Geology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Back calculation

Core testing

Hard rocks

International team

Material behavior

Numerical modeling

Pillar stability

State of the art

Stress paths

Swedish nuclear fuel and waste managements

Yielding strength

Excavation

Numerical models

Rock mechanics

Waste management

Experiments

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)