Effects of mineral suspension and dissolution on strength and compressibility of soft carbonate rocks

Ciantia, Matteo Oryem; Castellanza, Riccardo; Crosta, Giovanni B.; Hueckel, Tomasz

doi:10.1016/j.enggeo.2014.10.024

Cited by 99 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Following Ciantia et al (2015a), by analysing the thin sections with both a polarized light microscope and SEM, it was possible to identify the presence of both depositional and diagenetic bonds (Fig. 6).…”

Section: Experimental Results and Model Calibrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Microscopic weakening processes: a saturation-induced short-term debonding of depositional bonds; b, c dissolutiondriven long-term debonding and grain dissolution process (Ciantia et al 2015a) chemical enhanced crack propagation (Hueckel et al 2017) and strain localization cannot be captured by GHM and the adopted constitutive model, the definition and use of the BDI(t) would remain unchanged even if more advanced numerical methods such as FDEM (Geomechanica Inc 2016) or P-FEM (Rodriguez et al 2016) were to be used. Note that in the latter case a coupled constitutive relationship would still be required.…”

Section: Chemo-hydro-mechanical Fem Couplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A 3D Numerical Approach to Assess the Temporal Evolution of Settlement Damage to Buildings on Cavities Subject to Weathering

2018

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The goal of this paper is to show how a recently developed advanced chemo-hydro-mechanical (CHM)-coupled constitutive and numerical model for soft rocks can be applied to predict the temporal evolution of settlement damage to buildings on cavities subject to weathering. In particular, a Building Damage Index (BDI) and its evolution with time is proposed. The definition of the BDI is inspired by the work of Boscardin and Cording (J Geotech Eng 115:1-21, 1989) and uses the surface differential settlements obtained by finite element (FE) analyses to assess how far a building is from a non-acceptable service condition. By modelling the reactive transport of chemical species in 3D and using a coupled CHM constitutive and numerical model, it is possible to simulate weathering scenarios and monitor the temporal evolution of surface settlements making the BDI time dependent. This approach is applied to evaluate the damage evolution of two buildings lying on two anthropic caves in a calcarenite deposit belonging to the Calcarenite di Gravina Formation. Standard and advanced experimental tests are performed on the in situ material, and the results are used to calibrate the constitutive model. The soundness of both constitutive relationship and reactive transport solver is subsequently tested by simulating two laboratory-scale boundary value experiments. The first is a model footing test on dry and wet calcarenite, while the second is a small-scale pillar that, after the saturation-induced short-term water weakening, fails due to a long-term dissolution weathering process. Finally, both 2D and 3D coupled FE analyses simulating different weathering scenarios and corresponding settlements affecting the buildings above the considered cavities are presented. Particular attention is placed on assessing the BDI and its temporal evolution. Keywords

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Section: Experimental Results and Model Calibrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chemo-hydro-mechanical Fem Couplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 3D Numerical Approach to Assess the Temporal Evolution of Settlement Damage to Buildings on Cavities Subject to Weathering

2018

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“…Nevertheless, grain scale experiments have recently evidenced that capillary forces vanish with the drying of the meniscus (Mielniczuk et al, 2014a,b). Even if this mechanism effectively occurs, it would represent a minor contribution to the weakening phenomenon (Ciantia et al, 2015a).…”

Section: Esmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Water Content on the Mechanical Behaviour of Limestone: Role of the Clay Minerals Content

Cherblanc

Berthonneau²,

Bromblet³

et al. 2016

Rock Mech Rock Eng

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International audienceThe mechanical characteristics of various sedimentary stones significantly depend on the water content, where 70% loss of their mechanical strengths can be observed when saturated by water. Furthermore, the clay fraction has been shown to be a key factor of their hydro-mechanical behaviour since it governs for instance the hydric dilation. This work aims at investigating the correlations between the clay minerals content and the mechanical weakening experienced by limestones when interacting with water. The experimental characterization focuses on five different limestones that exhibit very different micro-structures. For each of them, we present the determination of clay minerals composition , the sorption isotherm curve and the dependences of tensile and compressive strengths on the water content. It emerges from these results that, first, the sorption behaviour is mainly governed by the amount of smectite layers which exhibit the larger specific area and, second, the rate of mechanical strength loss depends linearly on the sorption capacity. Indeed, the clay fraction plays the role of a retardation factor that delays the appearance of capillary bridges as well as the mechanical weakening of stones. However, no correlation was evidenced between the clay content and the amplitude of weakening. Since the mechanisms whereby the strength decreases with water content are not clearly established, these results would help to discriminate between various hypothesis proposed in the literature

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“…Microscale investigations and macroscopic experimental tests were performed and some results are in Ciantia, Castellanza, Crosta, and Hueckel (2015) and Ciantia, Castellanza, and di Prisco (2014). Both short-and long-term interaction of the soft rock with water were reproduced in laboratory by means of ad hoc apparatus, designed and built for simulating weathering tests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling weathering effects on the mechanical behaviour of rocks

Ciantia

Castellanza

2015

European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering

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The paper presents an experimental, theoretical and numerical approach in order to describe the effects of rock weathering on bonded geomaterials. The term rock weathering is used to refer to a number of chemical and physical phenomena that continuously transform a rock mass into granular soil. From an engineering point of view, rock weathering can be interpreted as a generalised decay of the mechanical properties of the original material. It acts at a constitutive level essentially by reducing the strength of the bonds joining the grains together. Such a material degradation can occur in a time scale which is comparable to the average life of engineering structures. Weathering can be crucial for what concerns the stability of slopes, cliffs and abandoned underground caves. In the experimental part of the paper micro and macro experimental investigations performed on calcarenite, a natural soft rock, are shown; short-and long-term debonding processes are identified as characterising rock weathering. A large set of hydro-chemo-mechanical data are recovered to properly characterise debonding processes by means of specific weathering tests. In particular, to reproduce long-term rock weathering in laboratory time, the progressive chemical debonding has been induced through the exposition of the rock to a uniform flow of an acid solution. In the theoretical part, it is shown how the progressive deterioration of the intergranular bonds due to weathering has been modelled satisfactorily by extending a strain hardening elastoplastic model by means of multiscale approach coupling hydro-chemo-mechanical processes. Such a model has been corroborated by simulating some tests of the previous part. Finally, in the numerical part of the work, some boundary value problems are presented, in which weathering effects cannot be neglected.

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Effects of mineral suspension and dissolution on strength and compressibility of soft carbonate rocks

Cited by 99 publications

References 44 publications

A 3D Numerical Approach to Assess the Temporal Evolution of Settlement Damage to Buildings on Cavities Subject to Weathering

A 3D Numerical Approach to Assess the Temporal Evolution of Settlement Damage to Buildings on Cavities Subject to Weathering

Influence of Water Content on the Mechanical Behaviour of Limestone: Role of the Clay Minerals Content

Modelling weathering effects on the mechanical behaviour of rocks

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