Chemo-mechanical Modelling of Cemented Soils, from the Microscale to the Volume Element

Abstract

Sensitivity of the mechanical properties of geomaterials to chemical processes is known to bring about either strengthening or weakening effects, the latter being critical for safety assessment in a number of civil and energy engineering applications. In this work, coupling of chemical and mechanical processes in bonded geomaterials is investigated by developing a micro-structure inspired model, which is then validated against a number of different chemo-mechanical experiments on calcarenite. The model is shown to provide a flexible framework for consistent interpretation of experimental loading paths, and can be readily applied to challenging boundary value problems, such as studying the stability of slopes exposed to acid rain or predicting the effectiveness of CO2 injection in carbonate rocks. The model can be also easily extended to materials involving cementation bonds with different composition.