Abstract:
Water adsorbed in clay minerals is well known to significantly influence their mechanical response under mechanical and thermal loading, potentially causing technical challenges for nuclear waste storage. This influence may play an important role in both elastic and plastic deformations.
Regarding elastic deformation, water confined in the interlayer space of clay minerals is strongly influenced by its interactions with the solid skeleton. Consequently, the pressure of confined water may no longer depend solely on its density, but rather on both the volume of the interlayer space and the number of water molecules at a given temperature, leading to a mechanical response that differs from that of bulk water.
Furthermore, at the interlayer scale, clay minerals exhibit discrete transitions between hydration states in response to variations in relative humidity or confining pressure, accompanied by pronounced hysteresis during hydration and dehydration. This hysteresis may translate into macroscopic plastic behaviour during thermal and mechanical loading and unloading.
The present study provides a multiscale investigation of the influence of confined water on the mechanical behaviour of Callovo-Oxfordian (COx) claystone under mechanical and thermal loading.
Short bio:
I obtained my PhD at Laboratoire Navier under the supervision of Matthieu Vandamme, Patrick Dangla, and Laurent Brochard. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher working with Laurent Brochard, Philippe Braun, and Xinping Zhu.
My research interests focus on multiscale modelling of poromechanical problems, combining molecular simulations and thermodynamic approaches. During my PhD, I focused on modelling sorption-induced deformations in mesoporous and macroporous materials. My current postdoctoral research mainly investigates the influence of confined water on the mechanical response of Callovo-Oxfordian (COx) claystone.
