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The slowdown of pressure solution creep has been thought to be caused by stress redistribution. This study presents a fresh view towards this creep behaviour. Basically, two rate-limiting mechanisms come into play amid pressure solution creep: (1) stress redistribution across expanding inter-granular contacts and (2) solute accumulation in the water film. Because non-hydrostatic dissolution occurs under open system conditions, solute accumulation in the water film is constrained by the ensuing solute transport process. Relying on the matter exchange across the contact surface boundary, the active processes in the voids, e.g., solute migration and deposition, affect pressure solution creep. Based upon the above, we sum up two requirements that have to be met for achieving chemical compaction equilibrium: (1) the Gibbs free energy of reaction, i.e., the driving force of non-hydrostatic dissolution process, gets depleted and (2) the concentration gradient between the water film and surrounding pore water vanishes.

The host rock immediately surrounding a nuclear waste repository has the potential to undergo a complex set of physical and chemical processes starting from construction of the facility and continuing until many years after closure. Understanding the relevant processes of fracture evolution may be key to supporting the attendant safety arguments for such a facility. Experimental work has been examined wherein artificial fractures in novaculite and granite are subject to a mechanical confining pressure, variable fluid flows and different applied temperatures. This paper presents a synthesis of the work of seven separate research teams. A range of approaches are summarized including detailed thermal-hydrological-mechanical-chemical (THMC) models and homogenized ‘single compartment’ models of the fracture; the latter with a view to larger network or effective continuum models. The competing roles of aqueous geochemistry, pressure solution, stress corrosion and pure mechanics were found to be significant in the reproduction of the experimental observations. The results of the work show that while good, physically plausible representations of the experiment can be obtained, there is considerable uncertainty in the relative importance of the various processes, and that the parameterization of these processes can be closely linked to the physical interpretation of the fracture surface topography., QC 20190123

The geological formation immediately surrounding a nuclear waste disposal facility has the potential to undergo a complex set of physical and chemical processes starting from construction and continuing many years after closure. The DECOVALEX project (DEvelopment of COupled models and their VALidation against EXperiments) was established and maintained by a variety of waste management organizations, regulators and research organizations to help improve capabilities in experimental interpretation, numerical modelling and blind prediction of complex coupled systems. In the present round of DECOVALEX (D-2015), one component of Task C1 has considered the detailed experimental work of Yasuhara et al. (Appl Geochem 26:2074–2088, 2011), wherein three natural fractures in Mizunami granite are subject to variable fluid flows, mechanical confining pressure and different applied temperatures. This paper presents a synthesis of the completed work of six separate research teams, building on work considering a single synthetic fracture in novaculite. A range of approaches are presented including full geochemical reactive transport modelling and 2D and 3D high-resolution coupled thermo–hydro–mechanical–chemical (THMC) models. The work shows that reasonable fits can be obtained to the experimental data using a variety of approaches, but considerable uncertainty remains as to the relative importance of competing process sets. The work also illustrates that a good understanding of fracture topography, interaction with the granite matrix, a good understanding of the geochemistry and the associated multi-scale THMC process behaviours is a necessary pre-cursor to considering predictive models of such a system., QC 20161110

The geological formation immediately surrounding a nuclear waste disposal facility has the potential to undergo a complex set of physical and chemical processes starting from construction and continuing many years after closure. The DECOVALEX project (DEvelopment of COupled models and their VALidation against EXperiments) was established and maintained by a variety of waste management organisations, regulators and research organisations to help improve capabilities in experimental interpretation, numerical modelling and blind prediction of complex coupled systems. In the present round of DECOVALEX (D-2015), one component of Task C1 has considered the detailed experimental work of Yasuhara et al. (Earth Planet Sci Lett 244:186–200, 2006), wherein a single artificial fracture in novaculite (micro- or crypto-crystalline quartz) is subject to variable fluid flows, mechanical confining pressure and different applied temperatures. This paper presents a synthesis of the completed work of six separate research teams. A range of approaches are presented including 2D and 3D high-resolution coupled thermo–hydro–mechanical–chemical models. The results of the work show that while good, physically plausible representations of the experiment can be obtained using a range of approaches, there is considerable uncertainty in the relative importance of the various processes, and that the parameterisation of these processes can be closely linked to the interpretation of the fracture surface topography at different spatial scales.