No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 207-212).

published_or_final_version / Civil and Structural Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

<p>The effects of different shearing processes and sample sizes on the fluid flow anisotropy and its impact on particle transport process in rough rock fractures are significant factors that need to be considered in the performance and safety assessments of underground nuclear waste repositories. The subjects, however, have not been adequately investigated previously in either laboratory experiments or numerical modeling. This thesis addresses these problems using numerical modeling approaches.</p><p>The modeling consists of two parts: 1) fluid flow simulations considering more complex but realistic flow boundary conditions during shear processes that cannot be realized readily in laboratory experiments, using digitalized fracture surfaces scanned in the laboratory, so that anisotropic fluid flow induced by shearing with channeling phenomenon can be directly simulated and quantified; 2) particle tracking simulations to demonstrate the impacts of such channeling effects on characteristic properties of particle transport. The numerical method chosen for the simulations is the Finite Element Method (FEM). Scale effects were considered in the simulations by using fracture surface samples of different sizes.</p><p>The distributions of fracture aperture during shear were obtained by numerically generating relative translational and rotary movements between two digitalized surfaces of a rock fracture replica without considering normal loading. From the evolutions of the aperture distributions during the shearing processes, the evolutions of the transmissivity fields were determined by assuming the validity of the cubic law locally. A geostatistical approach was used to quantify the scale effects of the aperture and transmissivity fields. The fluid flow was simulated using different flow boundary conditions, corresponding to translational and rotary shear processes. Corresponding to translational shear (with a 1 mm shear displacement interval up to a maximum shear displacement of 20 mm), three different flow patterns, i.e., unidirectional (flow parallel with and perpendicular to the shear direction), bi-directional and radial, were taken into account. Corresponding to rotary shear (with a 0.5o shear angle interval up to 90o), only the radial flow pattern was considered. The particle transport was simulated using the Particle Tracking Method, with the particles motion following the fluid velocity fields during shear, as calculated by FEM. For the unidirectional particle transport, the breakthrough curves were analyzed by fitting to an analytical solution of 1-D advection-dispersion equation. The dispersivity, Péclet number and tracer velocity, as well as their evolutions during shear, were determined numerically.</p><p>The results show that the fracture aperture increases anisotropically during translational shear, with a more pronounced increase in the direction perpendicular to the shear displacement, causing significant fluid flow channelling. A more significant increase of flow rate and decrease in travel time of the particles in the direction perpendicular to the shear direction is predicted. The particle travel time and characteristics are, correspondingly, much different when such effects caused by shear are included. This finding may have an important impact on the interpretation of the results of coupled hydro-mechanical and tracer experiments for measurements of hydraulic properties of rock fractures, because hydraulic properties are usually calculated from flow test results along the shear directions, with the effects of the significant anisotropic flow perpendicular to the shear direction ignored. The results also show that safety assessment of a nuclear repository, without considering the effects of stress/deformation of rocks on fluid flow and transport processes, may have significant risk potential. The results obtained from numerical simulations show that fluid flow through a single rough fracture changes with increasing sample size, indicating that representativehydro-mechanical properties of the fractures in the field can only be accurately determined using samples of representative sizes beyond their stationarity thresholds.</p>

Der Zugang zu wirtschaftsstrategischen Bodenschätzen ist für moderne Industriegesellschaften von essenzieller Bedeutung. Für Deutschland besteht für die Versorgung mit nichtenergetischen Rohstoffen wie Stahlveredlern und Seltenen-Erden eine weitgehende Importabhängigkeit. Vorhandene heimische Lagerstätten weisen eine komplexe geologische Struktur mit geringen Abbaumächtigkeiten in großen Teufen auf. Um diese Lagerstätten nutzen zu können, soll ein untertagetaugliches Positionierungs- und Navigationssystem, UPNS4D+, für die Erkundung der Lagerstätte entwickelt und als Demonstrationssystem gebaut werden. Das Institut für Markscheidewesen und Geodäsie der TU Bergakademie ist Teil des Entwicklerkonsortiums. Es ist zuständig für die markscheiderische und bergmännische Nutzbarkeit der mit dem Erkundungssystem gewonnen Daten. Entsprechend dem aktuellen Arbeitsfortschritt werden im vorliegenden Beitrag die Lösungen für die Kluftflächen- und die Haufwerksanalyse vorgestellt. Die teilautomatisierte Haufwerksanalyse dient der Detektion großer Partikel und deren Lagebestimmung in einem relativen Koordinatensystem. / Access to strategic mineral resources is essential for modern industrial societies. Germany is largely dependent on imports of non-energy raw materials such as steel refiners and rare earth elements. Existing indigenous deposits have a complex geological structure with low extraction thickness in large depths. In order to use these deposits, an underground positioning and navigation system, namely UPNS4D+, as a demonstration system has to be developed for deposit exploration. As part of the developer consortium, the Institute for Mining Surveying and Geodesy of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg is responsible for the utilization of the acquired data in the field of mining. According to the current work status, in this paper the solutions for rock fracture analysis and grain size analysis are presented. The partly automated grain size analysis is used for the detection of large particles and their position in a relative coordinate system.

Different rock formations may appear within the same mass, or even within the same formation there may exist layers of different materials, creating interfaces between layers (an interface may be defined, in more general terms, as a frictional contact that separates two similar or dissimilar materials). Currently, there is no well-established experimental work that investigates the influence of frictional interfaces, interface orientation and flaw geometries on crack behavior (i.e. initiation, propagation and coalescence) in brittle specimens under compressive loading. A series of experiments on homogeneous gypsum specimens, used as a rock-model material, containing two pre-existing open flaws and a frictional interface has been performed under uniaxial compression. The experiments investigate how cracks interact with interfaces and how different variables (i.e. flaw geometry, interface inclination angle and interface roughness) affect crack behavior in homogeneous materials separated by an interface. The specimens are 203.2mm high, 101.6mm wide, and 25.4mm thick. The two flaws, with 0.1mm aperture and 12.7mm length (2a), are created through the thickness of the specimen. The spacing (S) between flaws, continuity (C), and inclination angle, measured from the horizontal, (β) define the geometry of the flaws. Three flaw geometries are tested: S=0, C= -2a= -12.7mm, β= 30° (i.e. a left-stepping geometry); S= 2a= 12.7 mm, C=a=6.35 mm, β= 30° (i.e. an overlapping geometry) and S= 3a= 19.05mm, C=0, β= 30° (i.e. a right-stepping geometry). Smooth and rough unbonded interfaces are created by casting the specimen in two parts. The first half of the specimen is cast against a PVC block with an inclined face (i.e. 90°, 80° or 70°) with respect to the vertical axis of the specimen. The second half is then cast against the first one. Sandpaper may be attached to the PVC block to provide different roughness to the interface; a debonding agent applied to the interface ensures a cohesionless contact. In the experiments, digital image correlation (DIC) is used to monitor crack propagation on the specimen surface. The experiments indicate that the interface itself is an important contributor to new cracks and its presence in the specimens reduce crack initiation stress. Furthermore, the increase in roughness and inclination of the interface (i.e. from horizontal to 70° from the vertical) causes crack initiation stress to decrease. It was also observed that the angle between the incident crack plane and the interface affects whether an incident crack will penetrate an interface or be arrested: Tensile cracks that meet the interface at 30° to 60° angle get arrested, while those at or above 70° cross the interface with an offset of 0 – 1.2 mm. While shear cracks that meet the interface at 20° to 63° angles get arrested at the interface, while those at or above 70° cross the interface with an offset in the range of 0 – 1.76 mm. Another relevant finding is the fact that changes in interface roughness or inclination angle did not affect the angles at which cracks initiate or reinitiate at the interface.<div>A numerical study was conducted using the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) capability in ABAQUS, to further investigate the fracture behavior observed in the experiments and, more specifically, the influence of the different types of interfaces. An extensive investigation of the stress fields around the tips of the flaws and of the new cracks, as well as along the interface in the specimens, was conducted to determine the relationship between stresses and crack initiation and propagation (i.e. type and direction of cracks). The stress-based approach yields predictions of tensile and shear cracks location and initiation direction that are in good agreement with experimental results. The numerical investigation indicated that rougher horizontal interfaces induced slightly higher tensile stresses around the interior and exterior flaw tips than smoother interfaces, which may explain why tensile cracks at these locations initiated earlier in specimens with a rough interface. Moreover, inclined interfaces induced higher tensile stresses around the interior and exterior flaw tips than horizontal interfaces, which may justify that, in the experiments, inclined interfaces promoted crack initiation earlier than horizontal interfaces.</div>

The effects of different shearing processes and sample sizes on the fluid flow anisotropy and its impact on particle transport process in rough rock fractures are significant factors that need to be considered in the performance and safety assessments of underground nuclear waste repositories. The subjects, however, have not been adequately investigated previously in either laboratory experiments or numerical modeling. This thesis addresses these problems using numerical modeling approaches. The modeling consists of two parts: 1) fluid flow simulations considering more complex but realistic flow boundary conditions during shear processes that cannot be realized readily in laboratory experiments, using digitalized fracture surfaces scanned in the laboratory, so that anisotropic fluid flow induced by shearing with channeling phenomenon can be directly simulated and quantified; 2) particle tracking simulations to demonstrate the impacts of such channeling effects on characteristic properties of particle transport. The numerical method chosen for the simulations is the Finite Element Method (FEM). Scale effects were considered in the simulations by using fracture surface samples of different sizes. The distributions of fracture aperture during shear were obtained by numerically generating relative translational and rotary movements between two digitalized surfaces of a rock fracture replica without considering normal loading. From the evolutions of the aperture distributions during the shearing processes, the evolutions of the transmissivity fields were determined by assuming the validity of the cubic law locally. A geostatistical approach was used to quantify the scale effects of the aperture and transmissivity fields. The fluid flow was simulated using different flow boundary conditions, corresponding to translational and rotary shear processes. Corresponding to translational shear (with a 1 mm shear displacement interval up to a maximum shear displacement of 20 mm), three different flow patterns, i.e., unidirectional (flow parallel with and perpendicular to the shear direction), bi-directional and radial, were taken into account. Corresponding to rotary shear (with a 0.5o shear angle interval up to 90o), only the radial flow pattern was considered. The particle transport was simulated using the Particle Tracking Method, with the particles motion following the fluid velocity fields during shear, as calculated by FEM. For the unidirectional particle transport, the breakthrough curves were analyzed by fitting to an analytical solution of 1-D advection-dispersion equation. The dispersivity, Péclet number and tracer velocity, as well as their evolutions during shear, were determined numerically. The results show that the fracture aperture increases anisotropically during translational shear, with a more pronounced increase in the direction perpendicular to the shear displacement, causing significant fluid flow channelling. A more significant increase of flow rate and decrease in travel time of the particles in the direction perpendicular to the shear direction is predicted. The particle travel time and characteristics are, correspondingly, much different when such effects caused by shear are included. This finding may have an important impact on the interpretation of the results of coupled hydro-mechanical and tracer experiments for measurements of hydraulic properties of rock fractures, because hydraulic properties are usually calculated from flow test results along the shear directions, with the effects of the significant anisotropic flow perpendicular to the shear direction ignored. The results also show that safety assessment of a nuclear repository, without considering the effects of stress/deformation of rocks on fluid flow and transport processes, may have significant risk potential. The results obtained from numerical simulations show that fluid flow through a single rough fracture changes with increasing sample size, indicating that representativehydro-mechanical properties of the fractures in the field can only be accurately determined using samples of representative sizes beyond their stationarity thresholds. / QC 20101207