Coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical phenomena in saturated fractured porous rocks: numerical approach

The fundamentals of the theory of consolidation and thermoelasticity are recast into the formulation of a phenomenon called thermohydroelasticity. Subsequently, a variational principle and Galerkin formulation are combined with the finite element method to develop a new technique to investigate coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical behavior of liquid-saturated, fractured porous rocks. A code-to-code verification of the method is performed. Finally, the environment of a heater emplaced in hard rock is simulated. The effects of the coupled thermal stresses in the fractured rock are evident from the dramatic reduction of permeability due to the deformation of the fractures. These results can improve the understanding of observations and displacement measurements made in the in situ experiments at the Stripa mine in Sweden. 46 references.

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