Hydromechanical couplings in the clay matrix of argilite: some methodological aspects of the atomistic-to-continuum upscaling
Abstract
Clays are ubiquitous in civil engineering applications, from deep geological disposal of radioactive waste to petroleum engineering, all of which require a good knowledge of their mechanical properties. Swelling clays are highly sensitive to the relative humidity: increases of water content can induce significant volume increases, as well as variations of the elastic stiffness. A faithful description of the behavior of clayey materials must therefore account for the hydromechanical couplings within clays.
Hydromechanical couplings within the clay matrix of argilite were investigated numerically following a multi-scale approach. At the smallest scale, the clay layers of Na-montmorillonite are characterized through Monte Carlo molecular simulations. The constitutive law of the particle (a stack of clay layers) is then derived through rheological models. Finally, the clay matrix is represented as a polycrystal made of clay particles and homogenized by means of numerical non-linear continuum mechanics methods.
Throughout our investigations, it was realized that the atomistic-to-continuum scale transition raised non-trivial theoretical questions. In this poster, we propose to show how the output of molecular simulations can be rigorously fed into a continuum mechanics simulation. Although the issues raised in this poster are illustrated on the upscaling of Na-montmorillonite, they are of a methodological nature and have a much wider range of applications.
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)
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