Abstract
This paper presents an international, multiple-code, simulation study of coupled thermal, hydrological, and mechanical (THM) processes and their effect on permeability and fluid flow in fractured rock around heated underground nuclear waste emplacement drifts. Simulations were conducted considering two types of repository settings (1) open emplacement drifts in relatively shallow unsaturated volcanic rock, and (2) backfilled emplacement drifts in deeper saturated crystalline rock. The results showed that for the two assumed repository settings, the dominant mechanism of changes in rock permeability was thermal–mechanically induced closure (reduced aperture) of vertical fractures, caused by thermal stress resulting from repository-wide heating of the rock mass. The magnitude of thermal–mechanically induced changes in permeability was more substantial in the case of an emplacement drift located in a relatively shallow, low-stress environment where the rock is more compliant, allowing more substantial fracture closure during thermal stressing. However, in both of the assumed repository settings in this study, the thermal–mechanically induced changes in permeability caused relatively small changes in the flow field, with most changes occurring in the vicinity of the emplacement drifts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alonso EE et al (2005) The FEBEX bechmark test. Case definition and comparison of modelling approaches. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 42:611–638
Barton N R, Bakhtar K (1982) Rock joint description and modeling for the hydrothermomechanical design of nuclear waste repositories. Technical Report 83–10, TerraTek Engineering, Salt Lake City, Utah
Barton CA, Zoback MD, Moos D (1995) Fluid flow along potentially active faults in crystalline rock. Geology 23:683–686
Birkholzer J, Rutqvist J, Sonnenthal E, Barr D (2008) Long-term permeability/porosity changes in the EDZ and near field due to THM and THC Processes in volcanic and crystalline-bentonite systems. DECOVALEX-THMC project, Task D. Final Report. Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) Technical Report (in press)
Börgesson L, Chijimatsu M, Nguyen TS, Rutqvist J, Jing L (2001) Thermo-hydro-mechanical characterization of a bentonite-based buffer material by laboratory tests and numerical back analyses. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 38:105–127
Chijimatsu M, Fujita T, Kobayashi A, Nakano M (2000) Experiment and validation of numerical simulation of coupled thermal, hydraulic and mechanical behaviour in the engineered buffer materials. Int J Numer Anal Meth Geomech 24:403–424
Chijimatsu M, Nguyen TS, Jing L, de Jonge J, Kohlmeier M, Millard A, Rejeb A, Rutqvist J, Souley M, Sugita Y (2005) Numerical study of the THM effects on the near-field safety of a hypothetical nuclear waste repository—BMT1 of the DECOVALEX III project. Part 1: conceptualization and characterization of the problems and summary of results. Int. J Rock Mech Min Sci 42:720–730
de Jonge J, Xie M, Kolditz O (2004) Numerical implementation of thermally and hydraulically coupled processes in non-isothermal porous media. In: Stephansson O, Hudson JA, Jing L (eds) Coupled T-H-M-C processes in geo-systems: fundamentals, modelling, experiments and applications. Elsevier geo-engineering book series. Elsevier, Oxford, pp 205–210
Jaeger JC, Cook NGW (1979) Fundamentals of rock mechanics. Chapman and Hall, London
Kolditz O, Bauer S, Beinhorn M, de Jonge J, Kalbacher T, McDermott C, Wang W, Xie M, Kaiser R, Kohlmeier M (2003) ROCKFLOW—theory and users manual, release 3.9. Groundwater Group, Center for Applied Geosciences, University of Tübingen, and Institute of Fluid Mechanics, University of Hannover
Liu Q, Zhang C, Liu X (2006a) A practical method for coupled THM simulations of the Yucca Mountain and FEBEX case samples for task D of the DECOVALEX-THMC project. In: Proceedings GEOPROC2006 International symposium: 2nd international conference on coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical processes in geosystems and engineering. HoHai University, Nanjing, pp 220–225, 22–25 May 2006
Liu X, Zhang C, Liu Q (2006b) Analysis of uncertainty in coupled THM simulations of the FEBEX case example for Task D of the DECOVALEX-THMC project.. In: Proceedings GEOPROC2006 International symposium: 2nd international conference on coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical processes in geosystems and engineering, HoHai University, Nanjing, China, pp 234–239, 22–25 May 2006
Millard A, Rejeb A, Chijimatsu M, Jing L, de Jonge J, Kohlmeier M, Nguyen TS, Rutqvist J, Souley M, Sugita Y (2005) Numerical study of the THM effects on the near-field safety of a hypothetical nuclear waste repository—BMT1 of the DECOVALEX III project. Part 2: effects of THM coupling in continuous and homogeneous rock. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 42:731–744
Min KB, Rutqvist J, Elsworth D (2008) Chemically- and mechanically-mediated influences on the transport and mechanical characteristics of rock fractures. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci. doi. 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2008.04.002 (in press)
Nguyen TS, Börgesson L, Chijimatsu M, Rutqvist J, Fujita T, Hernelin J, Kobayashi A, Onishi Y, Tanaka M, Jing L (2001) Hydro-mechanical response of a fractured rock mass to excavation of a test pit—the Kamaishi mine experiment in Japan. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 38:79–94
Noorishad J, Tsang C-F (1996) Coupled thermohydroelasticity phenomena in variable saturated fractured porous rocks—formulation and numerical solution. In: Stephansson O, Jing L, Tsang C-F (eds) Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes of fractured media. Developments in geotechnical engineering, vol 79. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 93–134
Ohnishi Y, Kobayashi A (1996) THAMES. In: Stephansson O, Jing L, Tsang C-F (eds) Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes of fractured media, developments in geotechnical engineering, vol 79. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 545–549
Ohnishi Y, Shibata H, Kobayashi A (1987) Development of finite element code for the analysis of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of a saturated-unsaturated medium. In: Tsang C-F (ed) Coupled processes associated with nuclear waste repositories. Academic Press, London, pp 551–557
Rutqvist J, Stephansson O (2003) The role of hydromechanical coupling in fractured rock engineering. Hydrogeol J 11:7–40
Rutqvist J, Tsang C-F (2003) Analysis of thermal-hydrologic-mechanical behavior near an emplacement drift at Yucca Mountain. J Contaminant Hydrol 62–63:637–652
Rutqvist J, Stephansson O, Tsang C-F (2000) Uncertainty in estimate of maximum principal stress from hydraulic fracturing due to the presence of the induced fracture. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 37:107–120
Rutqvist J, Börgesson L, Chijimatsu M, Kobayashi A, Nguyen TS, Jing L, Noorishad J, Tsang C-F (2001a) Thermohydromechanics of partially saturated geological media—governing equations and formulation of four finite element models. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 38:105–127
Rutqvist J, Börgesson L, Chijimatsu M, Nguyen TS, Jing L, Noorishad J, Tsang CF (2001b) Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical analysis of a heater test in fractured rock and bentonite at Kamaishi Mine—comparison of field results to predictions of four finite element codes. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 38:129–142
Rutqvist J, Wu YS, Tsang C-F, Bodvarsson G (2002) A modeling approach for analysis of coupled multiphase fluid flow, heat transfer, and deformation in fractured porous rock. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 39:429–442
Rutqvist J, Barr D, Datta R, Gens A, Millard M, Olivella S, Tsang C-F, Tsang Y (2005a) Coupled thermal-hydrological-mechanical analysis of the Yucca Mountain Drift Scale Test—comparison of field results to predictions of four different models. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 42:680–697
Rutqvist J, Chijimatsu M, Jing L, de Jonge J, Kohlmeier M, Millard A, Nguyen TS, Rejeb A, Souley M, Sugita Y, Tsang C-F (2005b) Numerical study of the THM effects on the near-field safety of a hypothetical nuclear waste repository—BMT1 of the DECOVALEX III project. Part 3: effects of THM coupling in fractured rock. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 42:745–755
Rutqvist J, Barr D, Birkholzer JT, Chijimatsu M, Kolditz O, Quansheng Liu, Oda Y, Wengqing Wang, Chenyuan Zhang (2008a) Results from an international simulation study on coupled thermal, hydrological, and mechanical (THM) processes near geological nuclear waste repositories. Nuclear Technol 163:101–109
Rutqvist J, Freifeld B, Min K–B, Elsworth D, Tsang Y (2008b) Analysis of thermally induced changes in fractured rock permeability during eight years of heating and cooling at the Yucca Mountain Drift Scale Test. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci. doi. 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2008.01.016 (in press)
Tsang YW, Birkholzer JT (1999) Predictions and observations of the thermal-hydrological conditions in the single heater test. J Contaminant Hydrol 38:385–425
Tsang CF, Stephansson O, Jing L, Kautsky F (2008) DECOVALEX project 1992–2007: an introduction to the special THMC. Environ Geol (special issue)
Wang J, Cook P (2005) Air-permeability distributions at niches in tuff units at Yucca Mountain. In: Proceedings of the 40th U.S. Rock mechanics symposium, Anchorage, Alaska, USA. American Rock Mechanics Association ARMA, Paper No. 846, 25–29 June 2005
Wang W, Xie M, Nowak T, Kunz H, Shao H, Kolditz O (2006) Modeling THM coupled problem of Task D of the DECOVALEX project. In: Proceedings GEOPROC2006 International symposium: 2nd international conference on coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical processes in geosystems and engineering. HoHai University, Nanjing, pp 226–232, 22–25 May 2006
Xie M, Wang W, Nowak T, Kunz H, Shao H, Kolditz O (2006) Numerical simulation of a THC problem and its long-term effect on bentonite/granite FEBEX type repository. In: Proceedings GEOPROC2006 International symposium: 2nd international conference on coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical processes in geosystems and engineering. HoHai University, Nanjing, pp 403–410, 22–25 May 2006
Zimmerman RM, Wilson ML, Board MP, Hall ME, Schuch RL (1985) Thermal-cycle testing of the G-tunnel heated block. In: Proceedings of the 26th US symposium on rock mechanics, Rapid City. AA Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 749–758, 26–28 June 1985
Zimmerman RM, Schuch RL, Mason RL, Wilson ML, Hall ME, Board MP, Bellman RP, Blandford ML (1986) Final report: G-tunnel heated block experiment. SAND84–2620, Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque
Acknowledgments
Review comments by Ki-Bok Min, University of Adelaide, Australia and Dan Hawkes at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are greatly appreciated. Funding to LBNL for the work done by the LBNL authors was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. Funding for modeling work by other research teams was provided by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), and the National Nature Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 50709036, 40520130315. It is emphasized that the views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and cannot necessarily be taken to represent the views of any of the organizations or individuals listed above.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rutqvist, J., Barr, D., Birkholzer, J.T. et al. A comparative simulation study of coupled THM processes and their effect on fractured rock permeability around nuclear waste repositories. Environ Geol 57, 1347–1360 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1552-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1552-1