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Modeling of Chemical, Thermal, Hydrological, and Mechanical Effects on
Geomaterial Performance
Conveners: Jan van der Lee, Ecole des Mines de Paris - Centre de Géosciences and Carl I. Steefel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The long-term performance of engineered and natural geomaterials is of concern to earth and environmental scientists and engineers in a number of applications and settings today. Some notable examples include the performance of nuclear waste repositories that rely on both natural and engineered barriers to retard radionuclide transport, the behavior of natural (e.g., shale) and engineered (e.g., cement) seals for deep aquifers proposed for CO2 sequestration, and the leaching of solid waste forms such as those used in road or building construction. The performance of these geomaterials can be affected over the long term by chemical, thermal, hydrogical, and mechanical processes acting individually or acting together in a coupled fashion.
To address these concerns, there is increasing interest in developing quantitative, scientifically defensible models for the coupled processes that affect geomaterials, particularly where their performance must be assured for long, often geological periods of time. For this session, we invite state-of-the-art contributions in mechanistic modeling of geomaterial performance in any application of broad interest to earth and environmental sciences. Contributions might range from those focusing on new numerical approaches to modeling highly coupled thermal-hydrologic-mechanical-chemical (THMC) systems, to those investigating the behavior of geomaterials in the real-world setting of a proposed nuclear waste repository or deep aquifer.
