Thermo-hydro-mechanical simulation of deep excavations in claystone

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The paper is centred on the enhancement of an existing hydro-mechanical model for argillaceous hard soilsweak rocks to provide predictive capability with respect to temperature evolution in the light of new experimental evidence. A number of developments of the original temperature-independent formulation are proposed. In particular, functions describing the yield locus, stiffness and strength parameters are improved to consider the elastic domain shrinking and the degradation of stiffness and strength parameters with temperature elevation. The developed thermo-mechanical constitutive model is applied, via a suitable coupled THM formulation, to the coupled THM analysis of an in-situ heating test performed in the Meuse/Haute-Marne Underground Research Laboratory. The relevance and importance of the temperature effect in the damaged zone around the in-situ heating tunnel are clearly demonstrated.