Simulation of a fully coupled thermo–hydro–mechanical system in freezing and thawing rock

Influence of daily surface temperature fluctuations on rock slope stability: case study of the Rochers de Valabres slope (France)

“…This phenomenon, known as ''frost shattering'' or ''cryogenic weathering'', has been well described by Zaruba and Mencl [23]: ''Water freezing in rock fissures increases in volume and thus tends to widen them; rocks penetrated by fissures consequently show reduced cohesion'' (Chapter 2, entitled ''Factors causing mass movements''). Study of this process has led to a large number of papers presenting rockwall temperature measurements in mountainous regions that attempt to correlate temperature with rockwall retreat (see [24,25] for field observations and [26] for laboratory tests and numerical modelling). As a rockfall cause, the freeze-thaw phenomenon is quite limited however to specific climatic environments (featuring moisture and sub-zero temperatures) and hence cannot alone explain the Rochers de Valabres rockfall that occurred during a period with entirely positive temperatures.…”

Association Rules between the Microstructure and Physical Mechanical Properties of Rock-mass under Coupled Effect of Freeze-thaw Cycles and Large Temperature Difference

“…Therefore, primarily depending on the characteristics of the fracture structure inside the rock, the mechanical properties of frozen cracked rock are quite different from those of homogeneous rock. Engineering practices show that (Kang et al 2013;Neaupane et al 1999), the mesoscopic thermal and mechanical behaviors of fractured rock mass of various groups are ignored by traditional macroscopic continuum theory which does not take into account the multiphase and discontinuity of frozen cracked rock. Therefore, the expansion characteristics of rock mass microstructure have become a key factor for the damage of fractured rock mass under the coupled effect of freeze-thaw cycles and large temperature difference.…”

Investigation of the Fluid-Solid Coupling Characteristics of Storage Caverns in Bedded Rock Salt

“…The relation of elastic volumetric strain stress, strain and pore pressure is expressed in equation (4). The viscous part of the deviatoric strain rate is linear to the deviatoric stress and the whole strain rate that involves initial and secondary creep parts [8] .…”

“…KM Neaupane, Pingchuan Dong et al and Weizhong Chen et al studied the fluid-solid and -thermal coupling mechanisms to the freezing and thawing rock mass, the oil/gas reservoirs, and the gas storage in salt rock [4][5][6] . Recently, more research work to the fluid-solid coupling in rock mass has been done, but the findings are still insufficient.…”