Hydraulic/Mechanical Modeling of Smectitic Materials for HMC Analytical Evaluation of the Long Term Performance of TRU Geological Repository

Aiming at evaluation of the long term performance of transuranic (TRU) geological repositories, the hydraulic/mechanical/chemical (HMC) analysis method has been studied. In this phase of research (four years) the hydraulic/mechanical modeling of smectitic materials for HMC analyses has been studied. In this paper, new experimental methods for investigation of the hydraulic/mechanical behavior of smectitic materials were developed. For hydraulic modeling, the measurement method of the specific surface area of compacted smectitic materials was developed using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results of the method were applied to the Kozeny-Carman law. Since the specific surface area represents the microstructure of smectitic materials such as the degree of swelling, it was found that the Kozeny-Carman law using measured specific surface area of compacted smectitic materials was useful in evaluating the hydraulic performance of smectitic materials. Moreover, since the Kozeny-Carman law can take the alteration of content of pore water into consideration by not only a coefficient of viscosity but also by changes in specific surface area, the Kozeny-Carman law will be more suitable to chemical and mechanical couple analyses than the ordinary Darcy’s law. For the mechanical modeling, the procedure of one dimensional exhausting compression test was developed. The tests gave the dry density and compression stress relation in the state of full-saturation of smectitic materials with varying water content. The relations between the dry density and compression stress in the state of fully-saturation were termed fully saturation lines. The group of isograms of degree of saturation and water content were also given with this test. It was found that the fully-saturation line is consistent with swelling deformation-pressure relation in the equilibrium state. The results indicated that the swelling deformation-pressure relation does not depend on the saturation manner, such as the injecting of water or exhausting of air due to compression. There will be, therefore, the possibility that the swelling deformation-pressure relation will be state functions and independent on the stress history. The fully-saturation line was compared with the equilibrium swelling pressure and dry density relation calculated from chemical potential by Sato (2008). Both were consistent with each other. It was found that the swelling behavior of smectitic materials can be treated as a state function in the mechanical analysis.