Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Effects of clay-seam behavior on WIPP repository design. [Clay seams]

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6354060

The geology at the southeastern New Mexico WIPP site consists of bedded layers of rock salt, anhydrite, polyhalite, mixtures of those materials, and thin clay seams. In spite of their very small (0.005 m to 0.05 m) thickness, clay seams are important to structural characterization of the WIPP stratigraphy since slip might possibly take place across them. Results of a study to determine the effects of clay seam frictional slip on the closure of a well-defined drift configuration are described. A Mohr-Coulomb dry friction model was used to model the active clay seams. The main thrust of the study was to determine the effects of friction coefficient variability on drift closure. Results show that the drift closure varies by a factor of 3.0 over the range of friction coefficients studied. The maximum slip observed along any clay seam was 0.12 m. For values of ..mu.. > .7, virtually no slip occurs along any clay seam.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
6354060
Report Number(s):
SAND-81-0768; ON: DE81028190
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English