| Abstract: | A general solution scheme is developed for one-dimensional and non-isothermal consolidation problems for fluid-saturated, porous, thermoelastic media. Two fundamental parameters which describe the coupling effects between thermal, hydraulic and mechanical behaviour are: ratio of thermal and hydraulic diffusivity and ratio of thermomechanical deformabilities in drained and undrained conditions. The solution scheme has been applied to the nuclear waste disposal problem. A solution for a thermoporoelastic rock mass containing a decaying heat source is presented. Numerical results show that coupling effects are most pronounced for low permeability and high porosity media such as deep compressible clays. This corresponds to a low value of the ratio of hydraulic and thermal diffusivities and a high value of the ratio of deformabilities in drained and undrained conditions. Comparison with numerical simulations taking into account the non-linear and non-reversible behaviour of the rock mass is presented. It shows that the thermoelastic model is quite correct for temperature and displacement fields, and gives maxima of the pore pressure and stress elevations. |
