Advances in Deformation and Permeability Evolution during Creep of Rocks

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to review the research advances in deformation and permeability evolution during the creep of rocks in geoengineering problems through aspects of experiments, models, and methods. On the experimental side, we reviewed the reports related to creep-permeability evolution in resolving real geoengineering problems. In the section on the constitutive model, we summarized the equations of the relationship between creep deformation and permeability evolution in reproducing the interaction mechanism of creep-permeability. In addition, in the section on the numerical modeling method, we examined the modelling methods able to apply the mechanism of creep-permeability evolution as a real problem. Our report concludes that it is important to conduct experiments to demonstrate the deformation and permeability evolution during the creep of heterogeneous rocks in multi physics fields (Thermal-Mechanics-Hydraulic-Chemical). Additionally, we confirm that it is necessary to improve the proposed equation of permeability evolution by considering strain and damage. Finally, this paper suggests that the DEM (Discrete Element Method) is available to evaluate the influence of the heterogeneousness of rocks on deformation and permeability evolution.

Keywords

• rock mechanics
• creep
• permeability
• deformation
• hydro-mechanical coupling