Publications related to Finite element modelling of thermo-elasto-plastic water saturated porous materials

Water weakening and the compressive brittle strength of carbonates: Influence of fracture toughness and static friction

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Barnaby Padraig Fryer, Corentin Jean-Marie Rémi Noël

Water is ubiquitous within the pore space of rocks and has been shown to affect their physical and mechanical behaviour. Indeed, water can act on the rock strength via mechanical (i.e., reducing the effective stresses) or chemical effects (e.g., mineral di ...

2024

A fully-coupled highly-parallelized geomechanical simulator for assessing induced seismicity

Jean-François Molinari, Guillaume Anciaux, Nicolas Richart, Brice Tanguy Alphonse Lecampion, Emil Gallyamov

Induced seismicity caused by anthropogenic modification of the subsurface effective stress state has been observed in a number of industrial applications -- from hydrocarbon extraction (e.g., Groningen [1]), drilling waste-water disposal (e.g., [2]) to the ...

2023

Influence of pore-scale heterogeneity on the precipitation patterns in Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP)

Ariadni Elmaloglou

The principle of tailoring material properties to improve the mechanical behaviour of soils through compaction or cement grouting dates to the 60s. The increasing trends of urbanization worldwide require new solutions for the development of resilient and s ...

EPFL2023

Modeling the mechanics and rheology of porous and granular media: an elastoplastic continuum approach

Lars Kristoffer Uhlen Blatny

The complex mechanics of porous and granular media play a significant role in various industrial processes and natural phenomena. As an example, understanding the mechanics of how failure occurs, localizes and propagates in porous brittle solids under vari ...

EPFL2023

Visualization and modelling of dynamic flow in fibrous preforms for liquid composite molding

Helena Luisa Teixido Pedarros

Nowadays, Liquid Composite Molding techniques are often used to manufacture high quality fiber reinforced composite parts at a relatively low cost. These involve an infiltration process, in which a liquid resin is forced to ingress into a dry fibrous porou ...

EPFL2023

Dynamic Effective Porosity Explains Laboratory Experiments on Watertable Fluctuations in Coastal Unconfined Aquifers

David Andrew Barry, Zhaoyang Luo

Watertable fluctuations are a characteristic feature of coastal unconfined aquifers. They interact with the vadose zone creating a dynamic effective porosity, for which a new (empirical) expression is proposed based on a dimensionless parameter related to ...

2023

Freezing-induced stiffness and strength anisotropy in freezing clayey soil: Theory, numerical modeling, and experimental validation

Gioacchino Viggiani, Edward Carlo Giorgio Andò

This paper presents a combined experimental-modeling effort to interpret the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviors of the freezing soil, where an unconfined, fully saturated clay is frozen due to a temperature gradient. By leveraging the rich experimen ...

WILEY2022

The effect of pore microstructure on strength and chloride ingress in blended cement based on low kaolin clay

Karen Scrivener, Diana Londoño Zuluaga

The objective of this study is to analyse the mechanical and durability properties of a high-performance mortars based on low grade kaolin clay and the effect of electrical conductivity and pore microstructure on the chloride penetration resistance. A tota ...

ELSEVIER2022

From coating flow patterns to porous body wake dynamics via multiscale models

Pier Giuseppe Ledda

Multiscale phenomena are involved in countless problems in fluid mechanics. Coating flows are known to exhibit a broad variety of patterns, such as wine tears in a glass and dripping of fresh paint applied on a wall. Coating flows are typically modeled und ...

EPFL2022

Approximate analytical solutions for assessing the effects of unsaturated flow on seawater extent in thin unconfined coastal aquifers

David Andrew Barry, Zhaoyang Luo

This study develops approximate analytical solutions for seawater extent in unconfined coastal aquifers considering unsaturated flow, and assuming steady-state, sharp-interface conditions, for both constant flux (flux-controlled aquifers) and constant head ...

2022

Numerical characterization and engineering of transport in morphologically complex heterogeneous media

Xiaoyu Dai

A multi-scale numerical methodology for the assessment of radiation and optical characteristics of complex structured soot-contaminated snow layers was investigated first. The methodology accounted for the exact morphology at the various scales and utilize ...

EPFL2021

Understanding of the factors slowing down metakaolin reaction in limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) at late ages

Paul Bowen, Mohsen Ben Haha, Karen Scrivener, François Henri Avet, Yosra Briki

Factors which could explain the slowing down of the metakaolin reaction in LC3 blends are investigated. Portlandite availability and the presence of aluminium ions in the pore solution are shown not to be limiting factors. ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2021

Effects of large macropores on soil evaporation in salt marshes

David Andrew Barry

The occurrence of macropores in salt marsh sediments is a natural and ubiquitous phenomenon. Although they are widely assumed to affect pore-water flow in salt marshes significantly, the mechanisms involved and their extent are not well understood. We cond ...

2020

Microstructural controls of anticrack nucleation in highly porous brittle solids

Henning Löwe, Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Jonas Ritter

Porous brittle solids have the ability to collapse and fail even under compressive stresses. In fracture mechanics, this singular behavior, often referred to as anticrack, demands for appropriate continuum models to predict the catastrophic failure. To ide ...

Nature Research2020

Hydraulic stimulation of pre-existing discontinuities in tight rocks

Federico Ciardo

Hydraulic stimulation is an engineering technique whose aim is to enhance the permeability of fractured rock masses at depths ranging from one to five kilometers. It consists in the injection of fluid at sufficiently high pressure in order to shear pre-exi ...

EPFL2020

Trait-specific dispersal of bacteria in heterogeneous porous environments: from pore to porous medium scale

Tom Ian Battin, David Scheidweiler, Hannes Markus Peter, Filippo Miele

The dispersal of organisms controls the structure and dynamics of populations and communities, and can regulate ecosystem functioning. Predicting dispersal patterns across scales is important to understand microbial life in heterogeneous porous environment ...

2020

Microbial life in porous systems

David Scheidweiler

Microbial life in porous systems dominates the functioning of numerous ecosystems, ranging from stream sediments to soils. While these environments are characterized by structures that vary spatially over orders of magnitude, the traditional research focus ...

EPFL2019

Seismic Dispersion and Attenuation in Fluid-Saturated Carbonate Rocks: Effect of Microstructure and Pressure

Lucas Xan Pimienta

The frequency dependence of seismic properties of fully saturated rocks can be related to wave-induced fluid flows at different scales. The elastic dispersion and attenuation of four fluid-saturated carbonate rocks, with different microstructures, have bee ...

2019

Pore space properties in carbonate fault rocks of peninsular Italy

Marie Estelle Solange Violay

The fault cores of extensional faults in Mesozoic limestones and dolostones are examined by mean of combined microstructural, ultrasonic and petrophysical analyses. Grain-supported fault rocks commonly localize in the outer fault cores, whereas matrix-supp ...

2019

Applicability of Tail Corrections in the Molecular Simulations of Porous Materials

Berend Smit, Daniele Ongari, Kevin Maik Jablonka

Molecular simulations with periodic boundary conditions require the definition of a certain cutoff radius, r(c) beyond which pairwise dispersion interactions are neglected. For the simulation of homogeneous phases the use of tail corrections is well-establ ...

2019