Development
of Coupled Models and their Validation Against Experiments in
Nuclear Waste Isolation (DECOVALEX)
DECOVALEX
is an international cooperative research project to develop
and test models of coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) processes
in fractured rocks (DEvelopment of COupled models and their
VALidation against EXperiments in nuclear waste isolation).
In
DECOVALEX, different approaches and models for coupled THM processes
in fractured rock and bentonite are tested against data from
laboratory and field experiments as well as applied to a number
of benchmark tests designed according to performance assessment
framework. The Drift Scale Test at Yucca Mountain, the largest
thermal test ever conducted in underground drifts to evaluate
the waste heat induced effects on thermal-hydrological-chemical-mechanical
(THCM) processes, is one of two major test cases in the current
phase of DECOVALEX for international study and discussion. Berkeley
Lab scientists also participate in the other major field test
case, which is the FEBEX experiment in the Grimsel Mine in Switzerland.
The FEBEX experiment which is being carried out by the Spanish
nuclear waste management organization, ENRESA, involves not
only coupled THM processes in fractured rocks around the drift
with two in-drift heaters, but also THM processes in the bentonite
blocks surrounding the heater canisters. In addition, Berkeley
Lab scientists also participate in two of the three performance
assessment benchmark tests.
Currently
there are nine countries and twelve research teams participating
in the DECOVALEX project.
