Abstract
The fracture within the surrounding rock will suffer heating-cooling process for the high-level radioactive waste (HLW) geological repository after the disposal of the HLW, and the conductivity variation of fracture to the heating-cooling process is crucial for the long-term safety of the HLW repository. To study the response of hydraulic properties to temperature of granite fracture, the hydraulic conductivity measurement of granite fracture was carried out during heating-cooling cycles (25 °C-120 °C-25 °C) with different confining pressures (3 MPa, 5 MPa and 8 MPa). In addition, the variation of morphology, pore structure and mineral distribution of fractured granite were analyzed using nuclear magnetic resonance and digital image processing technology. Results show that the hydraulic aperture continuously decreased with increasing temperature, then slightly recovered with the decrease of temperature during the first heating-cooling process. For the second heating-cooling process, the evolution of the hydraulic aperture with temperature is similar to the first heating-cooling cycle, while the variation magnitude was decreased significantly. The confining pressure affect the recovery ability of hydraulic aperture during the cooling process, the hydraulic aperture recover decreased with the increasing confining pressure. Combined effects of the confining pressure and thermal effect control the plastic deformation and fracture aperture of granite fracture. A formula considering the influence of temperature and confining pressure was developed to characterize the hydraulic aperture of granite fracture. In addition, variations in morphyology and mineral distribution were analyzed of granite fracture before and after the test. Result shows that the roughness of fracture surfaces decreased, and biotite and feldspar increased while quartz decreased after tests. Findings from the study could provide important reference for the HLW geological disposal engineering.
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