Simulation of swelling pressure evolution during infiltration in a bentonite block-pellet laboratory scale test

Abstract

This paper presents numerical simulation of an infiltration test performed on MX-80 block-pellet laboratory sample. The simulation is performed with Thebes Code, a fully coupled THMC finite element program. The focus of the simulation is to recover the observed swelling pressure and dry density of the initially inhomogeneous system during the hydration process and at the final fully saturated state. The numerical results show that the simulation is capable to capture the qualitative response reported in the experimental results. However, the quantitative predictions still need improvements. That could be achieved by better simulation of the three-dimensional geometry of the pellets and further incorporation of the microstructural effects in the employed hydro-mechanical constitutive models.