Mechanical-Thermal Coupling

Choi, SK., CP Tan and R Freij-Ayoub. A coupled mechanical-thermal-physico-chemical model for the study of time-dependent wellbore stability in shales, this volume, 2004. 

A COUPLED MECHANICAL-THERMAL-PHYSICO-CHEMICAL MODEL FOR THE STUDY OF TIME-DEPENDENT WELLBORE STABILITY IN... 

For cross-ply laminates, a knee in the load-deformation cun/e occurs after the mechanical and thermal interactions between layers uncouple because of failure (which might be only degradation, not necessarily fracture) of a lamina. The mechanical interactions are caused by Poisson effects and/or shear-extension coupling. The thermal interactions are caused by different coefficients of thermal expansion in different layers because of different angular orientations of the layers (even though the orthotropic materials in each lamina are the same). The interactions are disrupted if the layers in a laminate separate. 

A recent review [1] on polyimide adhesion to metal and ceramic surfaces shows the relevance of this topic to many different technological areas. Of all the polyimides studied thus far, it is evident that the most popular one is PMDA-ODA. It has very good mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties, but it suffers from poor adhesion characteristics. This problem is often overcome by the application of an adhesion promoter to the surface of interest. The most popular adhesion promoter appears to be APS. An excellent review concerning APS has been written by Ishida [2]. A wealth of information concerning silane coupling agents can also be found in the book by Plueddemann [3],... 

Figure 13 Possible thermal coupling mechanisms between the endothermic synthesis reaction and the exothermic hydrogen oxidation in hydrogen cyanide manufacture.

Reprotonation of Asp-96 allows the thermal re-isomerization of the retinal to iill-trans, through another long-range coupling mechanism (12), which probably involves the hydrogen-bonded chain of water that bridges them. This produces the red-shifted O-state, where the retinal is, once again, twisted. Transition to the initial relaxed iill-trans isomeric state occurs as the pro-tonated Asp-85 loses its proton to the vacant proton release... 

The flow of groundwater in a sedimentary basin results from the combined influence of the different driving forces for groundwater flow (mechanical, thermal, chemical and electrical driving forces) and the hydraulic conductivity of the subsurface. The transport of grovmdwater, heat and electricity, the mass transport of chemical components and the deformation of the solid part of the subsurface are coupled processes. 

Abstract Geological disposal of nuclear fuel wastes relies on the concept of multiple barrier systems. In order to predict the performance of these barriers, mathematical models have been developed, verified and validated against analytical solutions, laboratory tests and field experiments within the international DECOVALEX project. These models in general consider the full coupling of thermal (T), hydrological (H) and mechanical (M) processes that would prevail in the geological media around the repository. This paper shows the process of building confidence in the mathematical models by calibration with a reference T-H-M experiment with realistic rock mass conditions and bentonite properties and measured outputs of thermal, hydraulic and mechanical variables. 

Abstract To better understand the coupling of thermal (T), hydraulic (H) and mechanical (M) processes (T-H-M processes) and their influence on the system behaviour, models allowing T-H-M coupling are developed. These models allow simulations in the near-field of the system. Such a model has been developed within the simulator RockFlow/RockMech. This paper concentrates on the thermal and hydraulic processes. For those processes, the material parameters and state variables are highly non-linear and mostly functions of temperature, saturation and pressure. This paper shows how these dependencies are formulated mathematically and are implemented into RockFlow/RockMech. The implementation allows phase changes between the fluid phases (gas and liquid) to occur explicitly. The model allows the simulation of very low permeability clays with high capillary pressures. An example for code validation is shown, where low permeability clay is desaturated, lastly, current work on the calculations performed in the near field study (BMTl) of the DECOY ALEX III project is outlined. 

To get better the understanding of the system, the mechanical behaviour of the clay has been taken into account. The initial conditions are null total stresses everywhere. So, in-situ mechanical stresses are not taken into account. The results of our THM calculation show only stresses induced by thermal-hydro-mechanical couplings. The contact between the EB and the canister is once again supposed to be perfect, so that no radial displacement of the clay is allowed at that boundary. Biot s poroelastic model is chosen to represent clay behaviour. It takes partial saturation into account via an equivalent pressure which includes capillary effects, involving both gas and liquid, Dangla (1998). Biot s model is added as fourth equation to the system. The associated main variable is total stress state. The couplings with thermal-hydraulics behaviour are introduced by... 

FLAC3D (three dimensional finitie difference) was used to estimate the coupled mechanical and thermally induced stresses throughout the pillar. 

---