Laboratory tests, including compressibility, permeability, and microstructure tests, were conducted on tailings samples using custom-designed test apparatus to investigate the effect of metal contamination (Cu2+) on the hydromechanical behavior of compacted tailings. Infiltrating samples with various dry densities with distilled water or CuSO4 solution at various concentrations showed that the void ratio of compacted tailings decreased with increased dry density. An increase in the metal contaminant concentrations from 0 to 0.1 mol/L increased the compression coefficient of the tailings from 0.14 to 0.84 MPa?1 under a vertical load of 0.01 to 2.0 MPa, while the yield stress of the tailings decreased from 204.3 to 98.7 kPa, respectively. The linear relationship between permeability coefficient (k) and void ratio (e) is described by k?=???6.48?+?17.17e. Microstructure test results showed that the diffusion double layer thinned, and the surface potential decreased, indicating that the contaminant of Cu2+ enhanced the compressibility and permeability of the tailings. The microstructure test results also showed that the amount of fine-grained soil in the copper tailings was significantly less after the hydromechanical test. Therefore, the permeability and compressibility of copper tailings increased. The experimental results are in good agreement with the estimated results.
To investigate and analyze the thermo-hydro-mechanical(THM) coupling phenomena of a surrounding rock mass in an argillaceous formation, a nuclear waste disposal concept in drifts was represented physically in an in-situ test way. A transversely isotropic model was employed to reproduce the whole test process numerically. Parameters of the rock mass were determined by laboratory and in-situ experiments. Based on the numerical simulation results and in-situ test data, the variation processes of pore water pressure, temperature and deformation of surrounding rock were analyzed. Both the measured data and numerical results reveal that the thermal perturbation is the principal driving force which leads to the variation of pore water pressure and deformations in the surrounding rock. The temperature, pore pressure and deformation of rock mass change rapidly at each initial heating stage with a constant heating power. The temperature field near the heater borehole is relatively steady in the subsequent stages of the heating phase. However, the pore pressure and deformation fields decrease gradually with temperature remaining unchanged condition. It also shows that a transversely isotropic model can reproduce the THM coupling effects generating in the near-field of a nuclear waste repository in an argillaceous formation. 相似文献