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Hydro-mechanical path dependency of claystone/bentonite mixture samples characterized by different initial dry densities

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Abstract

In the context of the French Cigéo-project, a mixture composed of 70% processed Callovo-Oxfordian claystone spoil and 30% MX80-bentonite could be a potential backfill material, whose installation aims to stabilize the surrounding rock formation and to limit the propagation of the excavation damaged zone. The backfill material must sustain the overburden pressure, despite that it might be exposed to different hydraulic and mechanical paths. The reference concept considers employing conventional compaction techniques, although their employment involves spatial variations in the dry density after compaction. In general, as the initial dry density has a significant impact on the hydro-mechanical behavior of backfill materials, it is of major importance to relate the variations in the initial dry density to differences in the behavior. This experimental laboratory study aimed to analyze how variations in the initial dry density affect the swelling and compression behavior of the claystone/bentonite mixture, in particular in unsaturated state. Further, it evaluated whether those variations affected possible hydro-mechanical path dependences. The experimental program comprised suction-controlled oedometer and constant-volume swelling pressure experiments, in which samples characterized by different initial dry densities were exposed to different hydro-mechanical paths. The analysis of microstructural and water retention characteristics complemented the program. Major results indicated that the magnitude of swelling pressure at a given suction depends considerably on the initial dry density, but it is independent of the imposed hydro-mechanical path. Interestingly, the dependency of the yield behavior on the hydro-mechanical path appears to be more pronounced as the initial dry density increases.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank Dr. N. Conil of Ineris (formerly contracted by Andra) and Dr. G. Armand of Andra for fruitful discussions that helped to improve this article. Also, the authors thank Dr. S. Gaboreau of BRGM with regard to the performance of microstructural analyses, and Mr. J. Tisot, of LEMTA with regard to the monitoring of swelling pressure and oedometer experiments.

Funding

The work presented in this paper has been carried out during the preparation of the PhD thesis of the first author, which is funded by Andra (France), the French agency in charge of the management and disposal of nuclear waste.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LEMTA (UMR 7563, CNRS), Université de Lorraine, 2 Rue du Doyen Marcel Roubault, BP 10162, 54000, Nancy Cedex, France

    M. Middelhoff, O. Cuisinier & F. Masrouri

  2. Agence Nationale Pour La Gestion Des Déchets Radioactifs (Andra), Châtenay-Malabry, France

    M. Middelhoff & J. Talandier

  3. Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) gGmbH, Theodor-Heuss-Straße 4, 38122, Braunschweig, Germany

    M. Middelhoff

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  1. M. Middelhoff
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Contributions

MM, OC, FM, JT took part in conceptualization; MM, OC, FM, JT involved in methodology; Marvin Middelhoff participated in formal analysis and investigations; MM involved in writing—original draft preparation; MM, OC, FM, JT participated in writing—review and editing; OC, FM, JT took part in funding acquisition; JT involved in resources; OC, FM, JT took part in supervision.

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Correspondence to M. Middelhoff.

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Middelhoff, M., Cuisinier, O., Masrouri, F. et al. Hydro-mechanical path dependency of claystone/bentonite mixture samples characterized by different initial dry densities. Acta Geotech. 16, 3161–3176 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01246-1

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