Experimental study correlating damage and permeability in concrete using confined, flattened Brazilian disks

This research experimentally studies coupled hydro-mechanical relationships using flattened Brazilian disks under confinement, with concurrent permeability measurements and acoustic emission monitoring. A series of tests are performed on concrete, as representative samples of brittle geo-materials, under a range of confining stresses between 2.76 and 13.79 MPa. Acoustic emission data is used to quantify damage and identify damage thresholds. Damage is then correlated to pre-peak changes in permeability. The advancement of models that couple transport properties to mechanical responses are of interest in the fields of carbon sequestration, hydrofracking, production of geothermal energy, induced seismicity, and underground nuclear waste storage, and these experiments validate a novel experimental approach towards investigating hydro-mechanical relationships.

Automated summary

This study experimentally investigated coupled hydro-mechanical relationships using flattened Brazilian disks on concrete samples, measuring damage through acoustic emission data and correlating it to pre-peak changes in permeability under different confining stresses. The research validated a novel experimental approach towards investigating hydro-mechanical relationships, which is of interest in various fields such as carbon sequestration, hydrofracking, geothermal energy production, induced seismicity, and underground nuclear waste storage.