GeomInt: geomechanical integrity of host and barrier rocks–experiments, models and analysis of discontinuities

Abstract

The present paper gives an overview of the GeomInt project “Geomechanical integrity of host and barrier rocks—experiment, modelling and analysis of discontinuities” which has been conducted from 2017–2020 within the framework of the “Geo:N Geosciences for Sustainability” program. The research concept of the collaborative project is briefly introduced followed by a summary of the most important outcomes. The research concept puts geological discontinuities into the centre of investigations—as these belong to the most interesting and critical elements for any subsurface utilisation. Thus, while research questions are specific, they bear relevance to a wide range of applications. The specific research is thus integrated into a generic concept in order to make the results more generally applicable and transferable. The generic part includes a variety of conceptual approaches and their numerical realisations for describing the evolution of discontinuities in the most important types of barrier rocks. An explicit validation concept for the generic framework was developed and realised by specific “model-experiment-exercises” (MEX) which combined experiments and models in a systematic way from the very beginning. 16 MEX have been developed which cover a wide range of fundamental fracturing mechanisms, i.e. swelling/shrinkage, fluid percolation, and stress redistribution processes. The progress in model development is also demonstrated by field-scale applications, e.g. in the analysis and design of experiments in underground research laboratories in Opalinus Clay (URL Mont Terri, Switzerland) and salt rock (research mine Springen, Germany).

Introduction to GeomInt2

“…Data from insitu experiments in Mont Terri (BGR) and the Springen pit (IfG) were incorporated into the modelling platform of the GeomInt project coordinated by the UFZ, in which all project partners participated. So-called Model EXperiments (MEX) were defined as a synthesis tool, in which experimental and modelling work were systematically combined from the beginning of phase one (Kolditz et al 2021a, b). This integration formed the basis for the continuation of the project and the application of its results to site-scale problems in phase 2.…”