scholarly journals Upscaling THM modeling from small-scale to full-scale in-situ experiments in the Callovo-Oxfordian claystone

Author(s):  
D.M. Seyedi ◽  
C. Plúa ◽  
M. Vitel ◽  
G. Armand ◽  
J. Rutqvist ◽  
...  
2000 ◽  
Vol 663 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Samper ◽  
R. Juncosa ◽  
V. Navarro ◽  
J. Delgado ◽  
L. Montenegro ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTFEBEX (Full-scale Engineered Barrier EXperiment) is a demonstration and research project dealing with the bentonite engineered barrier designed for sealing and containment of waste in a high level radioactive waste repository (HLWR). It includes two main experiments: an situ full-scale test performed at Grimsel (GTS) and a mock-up test operating since February 1997 at CIEMAT facilities in Madrid (Spain) [1,2,3]. One of the objectives of FEBEX is the development and testing of conceptual and numerical models for the thermal, hydrodynamic, and geochemical (THG) processes expected to take place in engineered clay barriers. A significant improvement in coupled THG modeling of the clay barrier has been achieved both in terms of a better understanding of THG processes and more sophisticated THG computer codes. The ability of these models to reproduce the observed THG patterns in a wide range of THG conditions enhances the confidence in their prediction capabilities. Numerical THG models of heating and hydration experiments performed on small-scale lab cells provide excellent results for temperatures, water inflow and final water content in the cells [3]. Calculated concentrations at the end of the experiments reproduce most of the patterns of measured data. In general, the fit of concentrations of dissolved species is better than that of exchanged cations. These models were later used to simulate the evolution of the large-scale experiments (in situ and mock-up). Some thermo-hydrodynamic hypotheses and bentonite parameters were slightly revised during TH calibration of the mock-up test. The results of the reference model reproduce simultaneously the observed water inflows and bentonite temperatures and relative humidities. Although the model is highly sensitive to one-at-a-time variations in model parameters, the possibility of parameter combinations leading to similar fits cannot be precluded. The TH model of the “in situ” test is based on the same bentonite TH parameters and assumptions as for the “mock-up” test. Granite parameters were slightly modified during the calibration process in order to reproduce the observed thermal and hydrodynamic evolution. The reference model captures properly relative humidities and temperatures in the bentonite [3]. It also reproduces the observed spatial distribution of water pressures and temperatures in the granite. Once calibrated the TH aspects of the model, predictions of the THG evolution of both tests were performed. Data from the dismantling of the in situ test, which is planned for the summer of 2001, will provide a unique opportunity to test and validate current THG models of the EBS.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Casas ◽  
Guilhem Mollon ◽  
Ali Daouadji

<p>How do earthquakes start? What are the parameters influencing fault evolutions? What are the local parameters controlling the seismic or aseismic character of slip?</p><p>To predict the dynamic behaviour of faults, it is important to understand slip mechanisms and their source. Lab or in-situ experiments can be very helpful, but tribological experience has shown that it is complicated to install local sensors inside a mechanical contact, and that they could disturb the behaviour of the sheared medium. Even with technical improvements on lab tools, some interesting data regarding gouge kinematics and rheology remains very difficult or impossible to obtain. Numerical modelling seems to be another way of understanding physics of earthquakes.</p><p>Fault zone usually present a granular gouge, coming from the wear material of previous slips. That is why, in this study, we present a numerical model to observe the evolution and behaviours of fault gouges. We chose to focus on physics of contacts inside a granular gouge at a millimetre-scale, studying contact interactions and friction coefficient between the different bodies. In order to get access to this kind of information, we implement a 2D granular fault gouge with Discrete Element Modelling in the software MELODY (Mollon, 2016). The gouge model involves two rough surfaces representing the rock walls separated by the granular gouge.</p><p>One of the interests of this code is its ability to represent realistic non-circular grain shapes with a Fourier-Voronoï method (Mollon et al., 2012). As most of the simulations reported in the literature use circular (2D)/spherical (3D) grains, we wanted to analyse numerically the contribution of angular grains. We confirm that they lead to higher friction coefficients and different global behaviours (Mair et al., 2002), (Guo et al., 2004).</p><p>In a first model, we investigate dry contacts to spotlight the influence of inter-particular cohesion and small particles on slip behaviour and static friction. A second model is carried out to observe aseismic and seismic slips occurring within the gouge. As stability depends on the interplay between the peak of static friction and the stiffness of the surrounding medium, the model includes the stiffness of the loading apparatus on the rock walls.</p><p>The work presented here focuses on millimetre-scale phenomena, but the employed model cannot be extended to the scale of the entire fault network, for computational cost reasons. It is expected, however, that it will lead to a better understanding of local behaviours that may be injected as simplified interface laws in larger-scale simulations.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Shlesinger ◽  
Yossi Loya

AbstractHistorically, marine populations were considered to be interconnected across large geographic regions due to the lack of apparent physical barriers to dispersal, coupled with a potentially widely dispersive pelagic larval stage. Recent studies, however, are providing increasing evidence of small-scale genetic segregation of populations across habitats and depths, separated in some cases by only a few dozen meters. Here, we performed a series of ex-situ and in-situ experiments using coral larvae of three brooding species from contrasting shallow- and deep-water reef habitats, and show that their settlement success, habitat choices, and subsequent survival are substantially influenced by parental effects in a habitat-dependent manner. Generally, larvae originating from deep-water corals, which experience less variable conditions, expressed more specific responses than shallow-water larvae, with a higher settlement success in simulated parental-habitat conditions. Survival of juvenile corals experimentally translocated to the sea was significantly lower when not at parental depths. We conclude that local adaptations and parental effects alongside larval selectivity and phenotype-environment mismatches combine to create invisible semipermeable barriers to coral dispersal and connectivity, leading to habitat-dependent population segregation.


1990 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. H. Kjartanson ◽  
M. N. Gray ◽  
B.C.M. Pulles

ABSTRACTAECL Research is carrying out large-scale in situ experiments at its Underground Research Laboratory (URL). The Buffer/Container Experiment is designed principally to investigate the full scale, in situ performance of bentonite-based buffer material in a single emplacement borehole environment. In addition, the response of the rock to excavation and heating will be investigated. The experiment also allows for the development of the technologies needed to demonstrate some of the vault engineering activities proposed in the Canadian nuclear fuel waste disposal concept. These include excavation of large diameter boreholes for waste emplacement and in situ compaction of a bentonite/sand buffer mixture. Although these methodologies developed for the URL have not been optimized for the commercial, full-scale operations needed for a disposal vault, results show that the equipment and methodologies needed for vault operations are a reasonable extrapolation of existing technology.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Avadanii ◽  
Lars Hansen ◽  
Ed Darnbrough ◽  
Katharina Marquardt ◽  
David Armstrong ◽  
...  

<p>The mechanics of olivine deformation play a key role in large-scale, long-term planetary processes, such as the response of the lithosphere to tectonic loading or the response of the solid Earth to tidal forces, and in short-term processes, such as the evolution of roughness on oceanic fault surfaces or postseismic creep within the upper mantle. Many previous studies have emphasized the importance of grain-size effects in the deformation of olivine. However, most of our understanding of the role of grain boundaries in deformation of olivine is inferred from comparison of experiments on single crystals to experiments on polycrystalline samples.</p><p>To directly observe and quantify the mechanical properties of olivine grain boundaries, we use high-precision mechanical testing of synthetic forsterite bicrystals with well characterised interfaces. We conduct nanoindentation tests at room temperature on low-angle (13<sup>o</sup> tilt about [100] on (015)) and high-angle (60<sup>o</sup> tilt about [100] on (011)) grain boundaries. We observe that plasticity is easier to initiate if the grain boundary is within the volume tested. This observation agrees with the interpretation that certain grain-boundary configurations can act as sites for initiating microplasticity.</p><p>As part of continuing efforts, we are also conducting in-situ micropillar compression tests at high-temperature (above 600<sup>o</sup> C) within similar bicrystals. In these experiments, the boundary is contained within the micropillar and oriented at 45<sup>o</sup> to the loading direction to promote shear along the boundary. In these in-situ tests, our hypothesis is that the low-angle grain boundary displays a higher viscosity relative to the high-angle interface. Key advantages of performing in-situ experiments are the direct observation of grain-boundary migration or sliding, simplified kinematics of a single boundary segment, and  potentially changes in style of deformation with different grain-boundary character.</p><p>These small deformation volume experiments allow us to qualitatively explore the differences between the crystal interior and regions containing grain boundaries. Overall, the variation in strain and temperature in our small scale experiments allows the fundamental investigation of the response of well characterised forsterite grain boundaries to deformation. </p>


Author(s):  
D. Loretto ◽  
J. M. Gibson ◽  
S. M. Yalisove ◽  
R. T. Tung

The cobalt disilicide/silicon system has potential applications as a metal-base and as a permeable-base transistor. Although thin, low defect density, films of CoSi2 on Si(111) have been successfully grown, there are reasons to believe that Si(100)/CoSi2 may be better suited to the transmission of electrons at the silicon/silicide interface than Si(111)/CoSi2. A TEM study of the formation of CoSi2 on Si(100) is therefore being conducted. We have previously reported TEM observations on Si(111)/CoSi2 grown both in situ, in an ultra high vacuum (UHV) TEM and ex situ, in a conventional Molecular Beam Epitaxy system.The procedures used for the MBE growth have been described elsewhere. In situ experiments were performed in a JEOL 200CX electron microscope, extensively modified to give a vacuum of better than 10-9 T in the specimen region and the capacity to do in situ sample heating and deposition. Cobalt was deposited onto clean Si(100) samples by thermal evaporation from cobalt-coated Ta filaments.


Author(s):  
Charles W. Allen ◽  
Robert C. Birtcher

The uranium silicides, including U3Si, are under study as candidate low enrichment nuclear fuels. Ion beam simulations of the in-reactor behavior of such materials are performed because a similar damage structure can be produced in hours by energetic heavy ions which requires years in actual reactor tests. This contribution treats one aspect of the microstructural behavior of U3Si under high energy electron irradiation and low dose energetic heavy ion irradiation and is based on in situ experiments, performed at the HVEM-Tandem User Facility at Argonne National Laboratory. This Facility interfaces a 2 MV Tandem ion accelerator and a 0.6 MV ion implanter to a 1.2 MeV AEI high voltage electron microscope, which allows a wide variety of in situ ion beam experiments to be performed with simultaneous irradiation and electron microscopy or diffraction.At elevated temperatures, U3Si exhibits the ordered AuCu3 structure. On cooling below 1058 K, the intermetallic transforms, evidently martensitically, to a body-centered tetragonal structure (alternatively, the structure may be described as face-centered tetragonal, which would be fcc except for a 1 pet tetragonal distortion). Mechanical twinning accompanies the transformation; however, diferences between electron diffraction patterns from twinned and non-twinned martensite plates could not be distinguished.


Author(s):  
Kenneth S. Vecchio ◽  
John A. Hunt

In-situ experiments conducted within a transmission electron microscope provide the operator a unique opportunity to directly observe microstructural phenomena, such as phase transformations and dislocation-precipitate interactions, “as they happen”. However, in-situ experiments usually require a tremendous amount of experimental preparation beforehand, as well as, during the actual experiment. In most cases the researcher must operate and control several pieces of equipment simultaneously. For example, in in-situ deformation experiments, the researcher may have to not only operate the TEM, but also control the straining holder and possibly some recording system such as a video tape machine. When it comes to in-situ fatigue deformation, the experiments became even more complicated with having to control numerous loading cycles while following the slow crack growth. In this paper we will describe a new method for conducting in-situ fatigue experiments using a camputer-controlled tensile straining holder.The tensile straining holder used with computer-control system was manufactured by Philips for the Philips 300 series microscopes. It was necessary to modify the specimen stage area of this holder to work in the Philips 400 series microscopes because the distance between the optic axis and holder airlock is different than in the Philips 300 series microscopes. However, the program and interfacing can easily be modified to work with any goniometer type straining holder which uses a penrmanent magnet motor.


1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Garvey ◽  
John E. Tobiason ◽  
Michael Hayes ◽  
Evelyn Wolfram ◽  
David A. Reckhow ◽  
...  

This paper reports on field studies and model development aimed at understanding coliform fate and transport in the Quabbin Reservoir, an oligotrophic drinking water supply reservoir. An investigation of reservoir currents suggested the importance of wind driven phenomena, and that both lateral and vertical circulation patterns exist. In-situ experiments of coliform decay suggested dependence on light intensity and yielded an appropriate decay coefficient to be used in CE-QUAL-W2, a two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model. Modeling confirmed the sensitivity of reservoir outlet concentration to vertical variability within the reservoir, meteorological conditions, and location of coliform source.


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