Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Properties of Water-Saturated Clay as a Function
of Dry Density and Temperature
Abstract
Bentonite is a fine-grained geologic material consisting mainly of
montmorillonite clay. It presents a low permeability, a high swelling
pressure, and a strong capacity to retain radionuclides that make it an
important component in current efforts to design engineered barrier
systems for the isolation of radioactive waste. In these barriers, the
thermal gradient generated by radioactive decay is expected to lead to
coupled thermal-hydrologic-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes that may
impact barrier performance. However, constitutive relations
characterizing the THMC coupled properties of bentonite in variable
temperature, aqueous chemistry, and dry density conditions remain
incompletely understood. Here, we use high-performance molecular
dynamics (MD) simulations to gain insight into the THMC constitutive
relations of compacted montmorillonite clay. Specifically, we report
large-scale MD simulations of water-saturated clay assemblages
containing 27 montmorillonite particles performed using the codes
GROMACS and LAMMPS (Fig. 1). Simulations were carried out using the
replica-exchange MD (REMD) technique, with 96 replicas of the system
with a wide range of temperatures up to 100 °C. In addition, simulated
systems were progressively dehydrated to examine a range of dry
densities. Results were analyzed to determine a series of properties
including hydraulic conductivity, water and ion self-diffusivity, heat
capacity, thermal expansion, and swelling pressure as a function of
temperature, dry density, and the type of exchangeable cations (Na, K,
Ca). Finally, simulation predictions were validated and refined by
benchmarking against experimental results and previous MD simulation
predictions. This research provides new insight into the coupled THMC
properties of clay barrier systems and advances efforts to predict the
performance of engineered clay barriers over a long timescale.