Abstract
The nuclear waste disposal project involves thermo-mechanical interactions in rock induced by buried decaying heat sources. To satisfy the condition of zero stress on ground surface, mirror heat sinks and boundary solutions are used. Specifically, mirror heat sinks are aimed at removing normal tractions at ground surface generated by heat sources, and boundary solutions are intended for handling residual tangential stresses on ground surface caused by heat sinks and heat sources. Multitudes of rectangles are employed to discretize the ground surface. Under the assumption of evenly distributed shear loads over a rectangular element, an analytical formula about the influence coefficient is derived. Simplifying cylindrical canister heat sources into finite line ones, a repository-scale model for evaluating the thermo-elastic response of rock is proposed. Given a conceptual nuclear waste repository, the temperature increment, thermal stress and displacement of surrounding rock are investigated. The results demonstrate that the present model provides an efficient tool to analyze the thermo-mechanical response of a geologic repository with different heat loading patterns.
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