Investigating the time-dependent behaviour of Boom clay under thermomechanical loading

Boom clay, a stiff clay, has been selected as a potential host formation for the geological disposal of radioactive waste in Belgium. The underground research facility HADES has been constructed to enable various in situ experiments to be performed on Boom clay so as to study the feasibility of high-level radioactive waste disposal, and to provide reliable data on the performance of Boom clay as a host formation. Among the various laboratory studies performed on samples extracted from the HADES facility to investigate the thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of Boom clay, relatively few were devoted to the time-dependent behaviour, limiting any relevant analysis of the long-term behaviour of the disposal facility. The present work aims at investigating the time-dependent behaviour of Boom clay under both thermal and mechanical loading. High-pressure triaxial tests at controlled temperatures were carried out for this purpose. The tests started with constant-rate thermal and/or mechanical consolidation and ended with isobar heating and/or isothermal compression at a constant stress rate or by step loading. The results obtained confirmed the effect of the overconsolidation ratio (OCR) on the thermal volume changes (i.e. thermal dilation under high OCRs and thermal contraction with OCR close to unity). Significant effects of temperature as well as of compression and heating rates were also observed on the volume change behaviour. After being loaded to a stress lower than the preconsolidation pressure (5 MPa) at a low temperature of 25 degrees C and at a rate lower than 0.2 kPa/min, the sample volume changes seemed to be quite small, suggesting a full dissipation of pore water pressure. By contrast, after being subjected to high loading and heating rates (including step loading or step heating), the volume changes appeared to be significant, particularly in the case of stresses much higher than the preconsolidation pressure. Because of its low permeability, full consolidation of Boom clay required a long period of time, and it was difficult to distinguish consolidation and creep from the total volume change with time.