Guidance on numerical modelling of thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled processes for performance assessment of radioactive waste repositories

DECOVALEX III BMT3/BENCHPAR WP4: The thermo-hydro-mechanical responses to a glacial cycle and their potential implications for deep geological disposal of nuclear fuel waste in a fractured crystalline rock mass

Hydraulic jacking is a significant dilation of a fracture that occurs when the pore pressure within it exceeds the sum of the fracture's normal stress and tensile strength. This phenomenon may occur during a glacial period because of changes in hydraulic and mechanical boundary conditions. Since hydraulic jacking may alter flow patterns and the transport capacity of the rock mass, its possible effects on the long-term performance of a nuclear waste repository should be considered. We develop an approach to assess glacially induced hydraulic jacking in fractured crystalline rock and establish bounding estimates of the maximum jacking depth for the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company's (SKB) repository site at Forsmark. The pore pressure is estimated using mechanically uncoupled two-dimensional poroelastic continuum models with hydraulic and mechanical conditions based on SKB's reconstruction of the Weichselian glaciation at this site (120-0kaB.P.). For warm-based conditions, the water pressure at the ice/bed interface is set at 98% of the mechanical load, whereas for glacial conditions with extensive proglacial permafrost, the corresponding water pressure is set at a (lower) annual average value. We demonstrate that the pore pressure within the uppermost kilometer of rock is mainly governed by the water pressure at the ice/bed interface and that the mechanical impact of the ice load on the pore pressure is sufficiently small to be ignored. Given the current and estimated future stress conditions at Forsmark, hydraulic jacking is mainly of concern for subhorizontal fractures, i.e., it is sufficient to consider situations when the pore pressure exceeds the vertical stress. We conclude that hydraulic jacking at Forsmark will be confined to the uppermost 200m of the rock mass.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jgrf.20106

Approach to estimating the maximum depth for glacially induced hydraulic jacking in fractured crystalline rock at Forsmark, Sweden

A number of studies related to past and on-going deep repository performance assessments have identified glaciation/deglaciation as major future events in the next few hundred thousand years capable of causing significant impact on the long term performance of the repository system. Bench Mark Test 3 (BMT3) of the international DECOVALEX III project has been designed to study the coupled hydro-mechanical (H-M) impacts of glaciation and deglaciation on the long-term (up to 100 000 years), post-closure performance of the geosphere in which a hypothetical repository is located. The BMT3 is a generic exercise based on simplified geological, hydrogeological and rock mechanical characteristics of a crystalline rock research area in the Canadian Shield. This paper presents the site-scale coupled hydro-mechanical finite-element modelling studies conducted by the AECL and CTH teams. Interim results suggest that coupled hydro-mechanical effects, transient effects and fracture zone structural geometry are important.

A Finite-Element Study of Potential Coupled Hydromechanical Effects of Glaciation on a Crystalline Rock Mass

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Jan Hernelind

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

A Finite-Element Study of Potential Coupled Hydromechanical Effects of Glaciation on a Crystalline Rock Mass