Numerical Modelling of Swelling Pressure in Unsaturated Expansive Elasto-Plastic Porous Media

The focus of this work is to provide a new concept for accessing the swelling stress in expansive porous media, especially in highly compacted bentonite. The key to the new approach is the simulation with a chemical swelling model of an infinitesimal volume change followed by a back compaction Process. Free extension is allowed in the first step, to calculate the interlayer porosity change (micro) and the induced volume change potential (macro). The object-oriented FEM simulator GeoSys/RockFlow allows the combination of different processes. The hydro-mechanic/chemical (H²M/C) model takes into consideration two phase flow and deformation, as well as chemical swelling effects. The negative displacements on each boundary after the free extension simulation are taken as Dirichlet boundary conditions of the back compaction problem. The deformation step is simulated in the context of elasto-plasticity using the modified Cam-Clay model. The stresses obtained by back compaction represent the swelling pressure. A 2D example of compacted bentonite is analyzed with the new H²M/C model.     

砂-膨润土混合屏障材料渗透性影响因素研究

建立了一个新的结构-尾流振子耦合模型. 流场近尾迹动力学特征被模化为非线性阻尼 振子,采用van der Pol方程描述. 以控制体中结构与近尾迹流体间受力互为反作 用关系来实现流固耦合. 采用该模型进行了二维结构涡激振动计算,得到了合理的 振幅随来流流速的变化规律和共振幅值,并正确地预计了共振振幅值$A_{\max}^\ast$ 随着质量阻尼参数$\left( {m^\ast + C_A } \right)\zeta $的变化规律,给出了预测$A_{\max }^\ast $值的拟合公式. 采用该模型计算了三维柔性结构在均匀来流和简谐波形来流作用下的VIV 响应. 结构在均匀来流作用下振动呈现由驻波向行波的变化过程, 并最后稳定为行波振动形态. 在简谐波形来流作用下,结构呈现混合振动形态,幅值随时间呈周期变化.     

Micromechanical computational modeling of expansive porous media

A modified Terzaghi principle is proposed to describe the influence of locally coupled electro-chemo-mechanical processes in highly compacted swelling clays upon the form of the macroscopic modified effective stress principle. The two-scale model is derived using the homogenization procedure to upscale the microscopic behavior of a two-phase system composed of clay particles saturated by a completely dissociated electrolyte aqueous solution. Numerical experiments are performed to illustrate the results in a particular cell geometry. To cite this article: M.A. Murad, C. Moyne, C. R. Mecanique 330 (2002) 865–870.     

Monitoring of Pollutant Diffusion into Clay Liners by Electrical Methods

A non-destructive test was carried out on a liner material—sand bentonite mixture (SB) with a continuous concentration diffusion of NaCl electrolyte. The work reported studied the spacio-temporal variation of the electrical conductivity $\sigma ^{*}_{\mathrm{s}}$ (z, t) in a diffusion soil column with different heights. A relationship between the interstitial pore fluid concentration of SB and the electrical conductivity of the solution has been established by mixing and compacting samples of sand bentonite with NaCl electrolytes at different concentrations. Electrical conductivity of compacted specimens was measured with a two-electrode cell. The conductivity measurements were used to quantify the pore fluid concentration and effective diffusion coefficient of SB liners. It is concluded here that the electrical conductivity of compacted specimens depends mainly on the salt concentration in the pore fluid and it could be used to measure ionic movement through liners during diffusion. The experimental diffusion coefficient reached theoretical diffusion coefficient when sample height is equal to 40 cm.     

An empirical model for the thermal conductivity of compacted bentonite and a bentonite–sand mixture

The thermal conductivities of compacted bentonite and a bentonite–sand mixture were measured to investigate the effects of dry density, water content and sand fraction on the thermal conductivity. A single expression has been proposed to describe the thermal conductivity of the compacted bentonite and the bentonite–sand mixture once their primary parameters such as dry density, water content and sand fraction are known.     

Thermomechanics of Porous Media - I: Thermohydraulic Model for Compacted Bentonite

A general thermomechanical model is derived for a mixture. The model describes the behavior of the mixture via proper choices of free energy and dissipation function. A model for any combination of the mixture constituents can be reduced from the general model. The theory is applied to a thermohydraulic model for a mixture of compacted bentonite, liquid water, vapor, and air with the assumption of rigid skeleton and constant uniform porosity. The free energy of the system is chosen to take into account the individual nondissipative behaviors of the constituents and their mutual interactions, namely, adsorption and mixing of the gaseous constituents. The choices for the interaction terms are based on the equilibrium conditions for the water species in different combinations of the constituents. The resulting thermodynamically consistent macroscopic model is fitted to a suction experiment and applied to a simple one-dimensional thermohydraulic simulation of the bentonite buffer of the Febex in situ test. The results calculated with finite element method are successfully compared to measurements.     

A Two-Scale Model for Coupled Electro-Chemo-Mechanical Phenomena and Onsager’s Reciprocity Relations in Expansive Clays: II Computational Validation

In Part I Moyne and Murad [Transport in Porous Media 62, (2006), 333–380] a two-scale model of coupled electro-chemo-mechanical phenomena in swelling porous media was derived by a formal asymptotic homogenization analysis. The microscopic portrait of the model consists of a two-phase system composed of an electrolyte solution and colloidal clay particles. The movement of the liquid at the microscale is ruled by the modified Stokes problem; the advection, diffusion and electro-migration of monovalent ions Na⁺ and Cl⁻ are governed by the Nernst–Planck equations and the local electric potential distribution is dictated by the Poisson problem. The microscopic governing equations in the fluid domain are coupled with the elasticity problem for the clay particles through boundary conditions on the solid–fluid interface. The up-scaling procedure led to a macroscopic model based on Onsager’s reciprocity relations coupled with a modified form of Terzaghi’s effective stress principle including an additional swelling stress component. A notable consequence of the two-scale framework are the new closure problems derived for the macroscopic electro-chemo-mechanical parameters. Such local representation bridge the gap between the macroscopic Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes and microscopic Electro-Hydrodynamics by establishing a direct correlation between the magnitude of the effective properties and the electrical double layer potential, whose local distribution is governed by a microscale Poisson–Boltzmann equation. The purpose of this paper is to validate computationally the two-scale model and to introduce new concepts inherent to the problem considering a particular form of microstructure wherein the clay fabric is composed of parallel particles of face-to-face contact. By discretizing the local Poisson–Boltzmann equation and solving numerically the closure problems, the constitutive behavior of the diffusion coefficients of cations and anions, chemico-osmotic and electro-osmotic conductivities in Darcy’s law, Onsager’s parameters, swelling pressure, electro-chemical compressibility, surface tension, primary/secondary electroviscous effects and the reflection coefficient are computed for a range particle distances and sat concentrations.     

Chemo-hydro-mechanical coupled consolidation for a poroelastic clay buffer in a radioactive waste repository

Salt rock or rock with salty ground water are often encountered as host media for the underground disposal of radioactive waste. The nuclear waste, contained in a metallic canister, is usually placed inside a tunnel or a shaft excavated in the rock deposit together with a buffer of compacted bentonite inserted between the host rock and the canister to provide hydro-mechanical sealing. Due to the very low permeability and rich clay content, the bentonite acts as an osmotic semi-permeable membrane under a gradient of concentration of salt dissolved in the ground water. In addition, chemically induced expansion or shrinkage of the bentonite is generated by changes in the concentration of dissolved salt. By including such important chemical aspects, the hydro-mechanical governing equations are derived for this particular boundary value problem within the framework of a linear Biot-like isotropic poroelastic consolidation. The equations are solved analytically and a parametric study is undertaken to highlight the influence of chemical osmosis and chemical deformation on the flow and mechanical response of the bentonite buffer.     

Study of the swelling behavior of a compacted soil using flexible odometer

This paper includes an experimental study of the swelling behavior of a compacted soil. The study is performed using a flexible odometer, which allows for lateral deformation during soil expansion and the measurement of the lateral swell pressure. The paper is composed of two parts. The first one describes the flexible device used in this study while the second presents experimental results and discusses the influence of the rigidity of the odometer ring on the swelling behavior of a compacted soil.     

Heat,Water, and Solute Transfer in Unsaturated Porous Mdeia: II -- Compacted Soil Beneath Plastic Cover

Soil surface dynamics involve coupled transferof heat, water, and solute. An experimental andtheoretical study of heat, water, and solute transferin closed compacted soil columns under surfacetemperature wave amplitudes is presented. Thetemperature wave amplitudes ranged from 17.9 to 21.0°C. Potassium chloride solution was used tomoisten Clarinda clay and Fayette silty clay loamsoils. Initial water contents of 0.403 and 0.279 andinitial solute concentrations of 0.062 and 0.052 mol kg^-1were used in Clarinda and Fayette soils,respectively. The moistened soils were packed andcompacted in PVC columns (0.075 m diameter and 0.30 mhigh). Bulk densities of the compacted Clarinda andFayette soils were 1403 and 1585 kg m^-3,respectively. The columns were buried in soil suchthat column surfaces were exposed to natural as wellas artificial radiation and thermal conditions. Thecoupled nonsteady-state balance equations of mass andenergy were solved numerically to predict soiltemperature, water content, and solute concentrationdistributions. The theoretical model described soiltemperature, water content, and solute concentrationwell as compared with the measured values. TheFickian diffusive solute flux was one or two orders ofmagnitude greater than salt-sieving and thermal-diffusion solute fluxes.