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Analysis of pore structure effects on diffusive transport in Opalinus clay via pore network models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Qingrong Xiong  and
Andrey P. Jivkov
Qingrong Xiong*
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Radwaste & Decommissioning and Modelling & Simulation Centre, Dalton Nuclear Institute, The University of Manchester M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
Andrey P. Jivkov
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Radwaste & Decommissioning and Modelling & Simulation Centre, Dalton Nuclear Institute, The University of Manchester M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Opalinus clay has a high sealing capacity and is therefore considered as a viable candidate for hosting high-level radioactive waste. Assessment of the long-term containment function of clays requires understanding and modelling of mass transport through evolving pore systems. Development of pore network models for diffusion, which can be coupled to models for deformation and micro-cracking, is reported. Effects of clay texture and solid phase constitution are calculated and analysed. The results are in the range of, but slightly over-predicting, experimentally measured coefficients of diffusion in different clay directions. Further model improvements require better knowledge of micro-pore tortuosity, which awaits higher resolution experimental techniques.

Keywords

pore structure effectsOpalinus claypore network models
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 79 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 1369 - 1377
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015. This is an open access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015

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