Scaling behavior of gas permeability measurements in volcanic tuffs
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
One of the critical issues facing the Yucca Mountain site characterization and performance assessment programs is the manner in which property scaling is addressed. Property scaling becomes an issue whenever heterogeneous media properties are measured at one scale but applied at another. A research program has been established to challenge current understanding of property scaling with the aim of developing and testing models that describe scaling behavior in a quantitative manner. Scaling of constitutive rock properties is investigated through physical experimentation involving the collection of suites of gas-permeability data measured over a range of discrete scales. The approach is to systematically isolate those factors believed to influence property scaling and investigate their relative contributions to overall scaling behavior. Two blocks of tuff, each exhibiting differing heterogeneity structure, have recently been examined. Results of the investigation show very different scaling behavior, as exhibited by changes in the distribution functions and variograms, for the two tuff samples. Even for the relatively narrow range of measurement scales employed significant changes in the distribution functions, variograms, and summary statistics occurred. Because such data descriptors will likely play an important role in calculating effective media properties, these results demonstrate both the need to understand and accurately model scaling behavior.
- Research Organization:
- American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), New York, NY (United States); American Nuclear Society (ANS), La Grange Park, IL (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 60979
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940553-Vol.4; TRN: 94:010821-0089
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International high-level radioactive waste management conference, Las Vegas, NV (United States), 22-26 May 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of High Level Radioactive Waste Management: Proceedings of the fifth annual international conference. Volume 4; PB: 1048 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
58 GEOSCIENCES
99 MATHEMATICS
COMPUTERS
INFORMATION SCIENCE
MANAGEMENT
LAW
MISCELLANEOUS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
YUCCA MOUNTAIN
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
TUFF
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
STRUCTURAL MODELS
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
SCALING LAWS
PERMEABILITY
Yucca Mountain Project