A stress- and strain-dependent constitutive modelling of the large scale in situ PRACLAY heater test

[en] In Belgium, Boom Clay is considered as a potential geological formation for the disposal of radioactive waste in deep geological layer. The design and the long term safety of such underground facilities require the in situ thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) characterization of the host geological formation. In particular, the potential impact of temperature elevation both on the excavation damage zone (EDZ, near field) and on the intact rock/clay formation (far field) has to be studied. The laboratory tests and small scale in situ heater tests on Boom Clay showed the strong THM coupling behaviour but these experiments suffered the inevitable disturbance and low accuracy due to the small scale. The large-scale in situ PRACLAY heater test, conducted in the HADES underground research laboratories (URL) (Mol, Belgium), aims at filling this gap by heating the Boom Clay at large scale to reproduce the thermal impacts in the EDZ (or the near field) and to verify at large scale the far field performance. A 2D benchmark exercise within the framework of the European Joint programme EURAD HITEC has been proposed to model the PRACLAY heater test with fully coupled THM finite element code and to investigate the in situ behaviour of the host clay formation. The thermal pressurization due to the discrepancy of thermal expansion between the fluid and solid skeleton is well predicted. To well reproduce the evolution of pore water pressure, the strain dependency of the intrinsic permeability and the stress dependency of the Young’s modulus are considered in the advanced modelling. The small strain stiffness theory of the HSsmall model is also taken into account. The constitutive model is used to reproduce the sample extraction from the host medium and then the triaxial test. The results evidence the capability of the model to predict Young’s modulus measured in the laboratory. Finally, a good agreement is observed between the in situ measurements and the numerical results. The benchmark provides valuable insights into the THM impact on the host rock/clay formation and reliable indications on the model capacity.

Research Center/Unit :

UEE - Urban and Environmental Engineering - ULiège

Disciplines :

Civil engineering

Author, co-author :

Song, Hangbiao ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Urban and Environmental Engineering

Dizier, Arnaud

Levasseur, Séverine

Seetharam, Suresh

Collin, Frédéric ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Urban and Environmental Engineering

Language :

English

Title :

A stress- and strain-dependent constitutive modelling of the large scale in situ PRACLAY heater test

Publication date :

09 June 2025

Journal title :

Computers and Geotechnics

ISSN :

0266-352X

eISSN :

1873-7633

Publisher :

Elsevier, United Kingdom

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

European Projects :

H2020 - 847593 - EURAD - European Joint Programme on Radioactive Waste Management

Funders :

European Union

Available on ORBi :

since 30 June 2025

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