Insight into the elastoplastic behavior of Beishan granite influenced by temperature and hydraulic pressure

Abstract

Granite is an ideal host rock for high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repositories. In the deep environment of HLW repositories, granite is subjected to variable temperature and hydraulic pressure. In order to investigate the influence of temperature and hydraulic pressure on the elastoplastic behavior of the Beishan granite, the present paper implemented a set of triaxial compression experiments at various temperatures and hydraulic pressures corresponding to the environment of HLW repositories. The deformation processes, damage evolution, elastic coefficients, and strength of the Beishan granite were analyzed, resulting in a limited change versus temperature and hydraulic pressure. The residual strengths of granite are similar, but a higher temperature surpasses about 70 °C degrades the friction strength of granite. Evidence from the acoustic emission (AE) hits shows the damage rate is accelerated by improved temperature and hydraulic pressure. According to the experiment-based mechanism, a modified elastoplastic model was proposed which considered thermal pressurization and changeable compressibility. The results of computation based on the proposed model match well the experiment data.