The current economic situation has severely affected the US road infrastructure and funding has become inadequate for either maintenance or future growth. The inverted base pavement structure is a promising alternative to achieve high quality roads at considerably lower cost than conventional pavements. The proximity of the unbound granular base layer to the tire load makes the response of the granular base critical to the performance of the pavement structure. Therefore extensive material characterization is conducted on the granular materials that make the base. In particular, a true triaxial chamber is developed to study the mechanical response and the stress-dependent stiffness of granular bases compacted at different water contents. A novel method is developed to assess the as-built stress-dependent anisotropic stiffness of granular bases in-situ using both crosshole and uphole test configurations. The two inverted base pavements built in Georgia at the Morgan County quarry haul road and the Lagrange south Loop are tested as part of this study. A nonlinear orthotropic constitutive model is selected to capture the deformational behavior of compacted granular bases. The response of the pavement is analyzed by implementing this constitutive behavior in a three-dimensional finite-element model. Different pavement structures are simulated. It is shown that thin asphalt concrete layers resting directly on granular bases deform as membranes. Finally, numerical simulations are extended to compare inverted base pavements to conventional pavements used in practice. Results highlight the inadequacy of ASSHTO’s structural layer coefficient for the analysis of inverted base pavement structures as well as the potential economic advantages of inverted base pavements.

[pt] Reservatórios de hidrocarbonetos são sistemas dinâmicos que estão constantemente mudando durante a história da produção (depleção). A produção de fluidos, a partir de reservas de hidrocarbonetos, reduz a poro-pressão do reservatório, podendo levar à compactação das rochas devido ao aumento das tensões efetivas. Por outro lado, a injeção de água em um reservatório pode aumentar a poro-pressão e, com isso, diminuir a tensão efetiva. O conhecimento de mudanças de tensão e poro-pressão é essencial para uma boa gestão do reservatório, porque a alteração da tensão in situ durante a produção pode ter um impacto significante na performance do reservatório, variando a permeabilidade da rocha. O objetivo da atual pesquisa é estudar experimentalmente a variação, a anisotropia e a histerese de permeabilidade de rochas produtoras de petróleo (arenitos) sob variação dos estados de tensão hidrostático e triaxial verdadeiro. Para realização dos ensaios foi utilizado um novo equipamento triaxial verdadeiro, que aplica de forma independente as três tensões principais em corpos de prova cúbicos, atingindo, desta maneira, um estado de tensão mais realista para o estudo das propriedades relevantes das rochas. Os resultados dos ensaios apresentaram evidências que estimativas de produção e de reserva de hidrocarbonetos podem ser significativamente melhoradas, quando a permeabilidade é considerada uma variável dinâmica. A permeabilidade dos arenitos Berea, Rio Bonito e Botucatú se mostrou altamente influenciada, tanto pelo estado de tensão hidrostático quanto pelo triaxial verdadeiro. Contudo, o estado hidrostático apresentou maior influência na permeabilidade. / [en] Hydrocarbons reservoirs are dynamic systems that constantly changes during depletion. The production of fluids from a reservoir often reduces pore pressure such that there is an increase in its effective stresses. This may cause compaction which, in turn, may impact matrix permeability. On the other hand, during water injection on reservoirs, the pore pressure increases and effective stress decreases. An understanding of these changes is of fundamental importance to performance predictions and management of the stress- sensitive reservoirs. The main objectives of this work is to experimentally investigate the stress dependence of rock producing oil permeability, its anisotropy and hysteresis under hydrostatic and true triaxial stress conditions. In the present investigation a new true triaxial equipment, one that is able to apply the three principal boundary stresses independently using cubic samples was utilized. This equipment can apply a realistic stress state to the rock samples for measuring of the relevant properties under stress states that mimic the in situ condition. The experimental results have produced evidence that hydrocarbon production and reserve estimates may significantly improve when permeability is considered as a dynamic variable. Permeability in all three formations (Berea, Rio Bonito and Botucatú sandstones) was shown to be strongly stress-dependent both under a hydrostatic stress state and under a true triaxial stress state. Nevertheless, the effect of stress states on permeability has clearly shown that permeability reduction under true triaxial stresses was less than that under hydrostatic stresses.

Ce travail présente une caractérisation expérimentale du comportement mécanique et de la rupture par localisation de la déformation dans un grès des Vosges. L'évolution temporelle de la localisation a été caractérisée par des mesures de champs. Une nouvelle cellule triaxiale vraie a été développée au Laboratoire 3SR (Grenoble), qui permet une visualisation des échantillons sous chargement pour réaliser de la corrélation d'image numérique (CIN). Les essais ont été réalisés par compression en déformation plane (confinement de 20 à 50 MPa). La transition d'une déformation diffuse à localisée a été finement étudiée. Une analyse comparative a été ensuite effectuée entre les mesures de champs et la microstructure à l'échelle des grains observée par microscope (MEB). Enfin, une étude théorique basée sur une analyse en bifurcation a été menée pour comparer observations des bandes de cisaillement et prédiction sur la localisation de la déformation. / This work aims an experimental characterization of the mechanical behaviour and failure by strain localization on a Vosges sandstone. The time evolution of strain localization has been characterized by full-field measurements. A new true-triaxial apparatus has been developed at Laboratoire 3SR (Grenoble), which enables the observation of the specimens during mechanical loading for application of digital image correlation (DIC). Tests have been performed in plane strain compression (confining pressure from 20 to 50 MPa). The transition from diffuse to localised deformation regimes has been extensively studied. Then, a comparative analysis has been done between the strain fields (DIC) and microscope (SEM) observations to determine how closely the DIC fields are related to deformation mechanisms detected at the grain scale. Finally, a theoretical bifurcation analysis is presented to compare the experimental observations of shear bands with strain localization prediction.