On the chemo-thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of geological and engineered barriers

An overview of the recent findings about the chemo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of materials used for both geological and engineered barriers in nuclear waste disposal is presented, through some examples about the natural Boom Clay (BC) and compacted bentonite-based materials. For the natural BC, it was found that compression index identified from both oedometer and isotropic compression tests is similar and the compressibility of BC from the Mol site is higher than that of BC from the Essen site; the shear strength of Mol BC is also higher than that of the Essen BC, suggesting a significant effect of carbonates content; the thermal volume change is strongly overconsolidation ratio (OCR) dependent—low OCR values promote thermal contraction while high OCR values favour thermal dilation; the volume change behaviour is also strongly time dependent and this time dependent behaviour is governed by the stress level and temperature; the effect of pore-water salinity on the volume change behaviour can be significant when the smectite content is relatively high. For the bentonite-based materials, it was found that thermal contraction also occurs at low OCR values, but this is suction dependent—suction promotes thermal dilation. Under constant volume conditions, wetting results in a decrease of hydraulic conductivity, followed by an increase. This is found to be related to changes in macro-pores size—wetting induces a decrease of macro-pores size, followed by an increase due to the aggregates fissuring. The presence of technological voids can increase the hydraulic conductivity but does not influence the swelling pressure.