Thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of rocks around an underground opening

The assessment of the performance of a nuclear waste repository involves the evaluation of the combined effects of many different processes in geological systems. The coupled interaction between heat transfer and natural water in rock systems is one of the most important subjects to be studied not only with experiments and measurements, but also with powerful numerical analyses. This paper describes the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical analytical method with application to the Stripa project. The buffer mass test and the macropermeability experiment are chosen to evaluate the capability of the method. The numerical results indicate that the complex nonlinear behavior of the rock mass with water and heat must be considered to interpret the field data at the site.