Borehole stability in densely welded tuffs
- Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). Dept. of Mining and Geological Engineering
The stability of boreholes, or more generally of underground openings (i.e. including shafts, ramps, drifts, tunnels, etc.) at locations where seals or plugs are to be placed is an important consideration in seal design for a repository (Juhlin and Sandstedt, 1989). Borehole instability or borehole breakouts induced by stress redistribution could negate the effectiveness of seals or plugs. Breakout fractures along the wall of repository excavations or exploratory holes could provide a preferential flowpath for groundwater or gaseous radionuclides to bypass the plugs. After plug installation, swelling pressures exerted by a plug could induce radial cracks or could open or widen preexisting cracks in the rock at the bottom of the breakouts where the tangential compressive stresses have been released by the breakout process. The purpose of the work reported here is to determine experimentally the stability of a circular hole in a welded tuff sample subjected to various external boundary loads. Triaxial and biaxial borehole stability tests have been performed on densely welded Apache Leap tuff samples and Topopah Spring tuff samples. The nominal diameter of the test hole is 13.3 or 14.4 mm for triaxial testing, and 25.4 mm for biaxial testing. The borehole axis is parallel to one of the principal stress axes. The boreholes are drilled through the samples prior to applying external boundary loads. The boundary loads are progressively increased until breakouts occur or until the maximum load capacity of the loading system has been reached. 74 refs.
- Research Organization:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Regulatory Applications; Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). Dept. of Mining and Geological Engineering
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 138444
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CR--5687; ON: TI92018776
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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