Numerical study of thermo-hydro-mechanical responses of in situ heating test with phase-field model
Zhan Yu, J.F. Shao, Minh‐Ngoc Vu, Gilles Armand
Abstract
This study is part of numerical simulations performed on an in situ heating test conducted by the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (Andra) at the Meuse/Haute-Marne Underground Research Laboratory (URL) to study the thermal-hydromechanical behavior of the host Callovo-Oxfordian COx claystone in quasi real conditions, through the international research project DECOVALEX. The emphasis is put on the pore pressure increase generated by the heat released from high level radioactive waste and the consequence on the damage evolution of the host rock. A phase-field method is proposed to describe the evolution of damaged zones around the heating borehole. Both tensile and shear cracks are taken into account. The evolution of damage is coupled with temperature variation, rock deformation, and fluid pressure change. Moreover, the structural anisotropy of elastic properties, permeability, and heat conductivity of the host rock is taken into account. Numerical results are compared with in-situ measurements.