Diego Mas Ivars
Research and Safety Assessment
Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co
Flow through fractured hard rock occurs mainly through the fractures. Although coupled single fracture behaviour has been subject to investigation in the latest decades, outstanding questions still remain. Recent improvements in laboratory testing equipment, surface characterization methods, monitoring and visualization techniques allow for a much more detailed study and conceptualization of the coupled THM behaviour of single fractures and fracture intersections. Furthermore, in order to incorporate coupled THM behaviour in discrete modelling methodologies with millions of fractures, the key is to find the balance between constitutive model detail and pragmatic simplification. In this session we would like to discuss these and other questions related to this research area.