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Hydro-mechanical Modeling of Tunnel Excavation in Anisotropic Shale with Coupled Damage-Plasticity and Micro-dilatant Regularization

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Abstract

The disposal of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel in deep geological media will require excavating a large number of galleries in low-permeable rocks, altering initial rock integrity at the repository site. The FE tunnel excavated in Opalinus Clay at the Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory (Switzerland) is a unique full-scale experiment to study this process. We conducted a numerical study of the excavation of the FE tunnel in a coupled hydro-mechanical finite element framework, employing an anisotropic plasticity coupled with damage constitutive model. A second gradient of dilatancy formulation is employed to avoid spurious mesh-dependent behavior originating from the softening of the coupled damage-plasticity model. The approach is validated by comparing numerical predictions and in situ observations during and after tunnel excavation in terms of displacements, pore water pressure evolution and degradation of elasticity. Mechanical parameters are calibrated using laboratory experiments and values available in the literature. The model well reproduces the coupled hydro-mechanical processes induced by excavation, giving a good agreement between numerical predictions and experimental in situ monitoring data. Furthermore, the evolution of the excavation damaged zone is correctly predicted. Thus, this modeling approach is suitable for the purpose of simulating tunnel excavation in low-permeable anisotropic quasi-brittle shales.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo), the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate ENSI and the Mont Terri Project for financing this work. The authors wish to thank Dr. Paul Bossart and Dr. David Jäggi of swisstopo and Dr. Werner Gräsle of BGR, Germany, for providing data concerning the excavation of the FE tunnel as well as precious insights into the behavior of Opalinus Clay at the field and laboratory scale. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Sylvie Granet, Dr. Roméo Fernandes and Dr. Simon Raude of EDF (Électricité de France) for their important suggestions and clarifications related to the tunnel excavation procedure in Code_Aster.

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Author notes

  1. F. Parisio

    Present address: Department of Environmental Informatics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH-UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

  2. V. Vilarrasa

    Present address: Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spanish National Research Council (IDAEA-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

  3. V. Vilarrasa

    Present address: Associated Unit: Hydrogeology Group (UPC-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soil Mechanics Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

    F. Parisio, V. Vilarrasa & L. Laloui

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Parisio, F., Vilarrasa, V. & Laloui, L. Hydro-mechanical Modeling of Tunnel Excavation in Anisotropic Shale with Coupled Damage-Plasticity and Micro-dilatant Regularization. Rock Mech Rock Eng 51, 3819–3833 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-018-1569-z

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