Abstract
The drying-induced deformation behaviour of Opalinus Clay and tuff, which are being investigated under international and local collaborative projects for nuclear waste disposal in Switzerland and Japan, was investigated under a no-stress condition in the laboratory to evaluate their generic susceptibility to the formation of excavation damaged zone. The cylindrical core samples of Opalinus Clay and tuff were prepared to a one-dimensional drying condition and submitted to an uncontrolled laboratory environment. The strain evolution, evaporative water loss and environmental entities, such as temperature and relative humidity, were recorded simultaneously and quasi-continuously. It was observed that the drying phase induced significant strain magnitude and damage in Opalinus Clay samples, which was evidenced by the formation of hairy cracks on the surface parallel to the bedding. On the contrary, the strain occurrences in tuff samples were relatively insignificant, and no tendency of cracking was observed. In addition, the quasi-continuous availability of volumetric strains was further used in poroelastic relation for the estimation of capillary suction evolution. The calculated results were validated with pore size distributions obtained from mercury intrusion porosimetry.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory for providing samples and valuable data. The authors also wish to thank Prof. K. Watanabe and Assoc Prof. T. Yamabe at Saitama University for their valuable advice and suggestions. The first author acknowledges the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for awarding the research fellowship. The helpful comments and suggestions of anonymous reviewers are also highly appreciated.
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Soe, A.K.K., Osada, M., Takahashi, M. et al. Characterization of drying-induced deformation behaviour of Opalinus Clay and tuff in no-stress regime. Environ Geol 58, 1215–1225 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1616-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1616-2