The models of stress corrosion, pressure solution and flee-face dissolution/precipitation were introduced. Taking a hypothetical nuclear waste repository in an unsaturated dual-porosity rock mass as the calculation objective, four cases were designed 1） the fracture aperture is a function of stress corrosion, pressure solution and free-face dissolution/precipitation; 2） the fracture aperture changes with stress corrosion and pressure solution; 3） the fracture aperture changes with pressure solution and free-face dissolution/precipitation; 4） the fracture aperture is only a function of pressure solution, and the matrix porosity is also a function of stress in these four cases. Then, the corresponding two-dimensional FEM analyses for the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes were carried out. The results show that the effects of stress corrosion are more prominent than those of pressure solution and free-face dissolution/precipitation, and the fracture aperture and relevant permeability caused by the stress corrosion arc only about 1/5 and 1/1000 of the corresponding values created by the pressure solution and free-face dissolution/precipitation, respectively Under the action of temperature field from released heat, the negative pore and fracture pressures in the computation domain rise continuously, and are inversely proportional to the sealing of fracture aperture. The vector fields of flow velocity of fracture water in the cases with and without considering stress corrosion are obviously different. The differences between the magnitudes and distributions of stresses within the rock mass are very small in all cases.
The pressure solution model of granular aggregates was introduced into a FEM code which was developed for the analysis of thermo-hydro-mechanical(T-H-M) coupling in porous medium. Aimed at creating a hypothetical model of nuclear waste disposal in unsaturated quartz aggregate rock mass with laboratory scale, two 4-year computation cases were designed: 1) The porosity and permeability of rock mass are functions of the pressure solution; 2) The porosity and the permeability are constants. Calculation results show that the magnitude and distribution of stresses in the rock mass of these two calculation cases are roughly the same. And, the porosity and the permeability decrease to 43%-54% and 4.4%-9.1% of their original values after case 1 being accomplished; but the negative pore water pressures in cases 1 and 2 are respectively 1.0-1.25 and 1.0-1.1 times of their initial values under the action of nuclear waste. Case 1 exhibits the obvious effect of pressure solution.
With the models of stress corrosion and pressure solution, by Yasuhara et al., two computation conditions were designed for a hypothetical nuclear waste repository in an unsaturated dual-porosity rock mass: (i) the fracture apertures are changed with the stress corrosion and pressure solution (the porosity of rock matrix is also a function of stress); (ii) the fracture apertures and the porosity of rock matrix are constants. Then the corresponding two-dimensional FEM analyses for the coupled thermohydro-mechanical processes were carried out, and the states of temperatures, rates and magnitudes of aperture closure, pore pressures, flow velocities and stresses in the rock mass were investigated. The results show the followings: The aperture closure rates caused by stress corrosion are almost six orders higher than those caused by pressure solution, and the two kinds of closure rates climb up, then decline, furthermore tend towards stability; the fracture apertures decrease from the original value and tend towards the residual value, and the contact-area ratios of asperities increase also from the original value and tend towards the nominal value; when the effects of stress corrosion and pressure solution are considered, the negative fracture pressures in near field rise very highly; the differences between the magnitudes and distributions of stresses within the rock mass in two calculation cases are very small.
A coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-migratory model of dual-porosity medium for saturated-unsaturated ubiquitous-joint rockmass was established,in which the stress field and the temperature field were single,but the seepage field and the concentration field were double,and the influences of sets,spaces,angles,continuity ratios,stiffnesses of fractures on the constitutive relationship of the medium were considered.Also,the relative two-dimensional program of finite element method was developed.Taking a hypothetical nuclear waste repository as a calculation example,the case in which the rockmass was unsaturated dual-porosity medium and radioactive nuclide leak was simulated numerically,and the temperatures,negative pore pressures,saturations,flow velocities,nuclide concentrations and principal stresses in the rockmass were investigated.The results show that the negative pore pressures and nuclide concentrations in the porosity and fracture present different changes and distributions.Even though the saturation degree in porosity is only about 1/10 that in fracture,the flow velocity of underground water in fracture is about three times that in porosity because the permeability coefficient of fracture is almost four orders higher than that of porosity.The value of nuclide concentration in fracture is close to that in porosity.
