InterPore2025

Quantifying the yield envelope of geomaterials at elevated temperatures

20 May 2025, 10:05

1h 30m

Poster Presentation (MS03) Flow, transport and mechanics in fractured porous media Poster

Speaker

Kaina Rodrigues Vieira (Duke University)

Description

Plasticity is the study of plastic deformation of materials, which can be quantified using governing and constitutive laws including the conservation of mass, conservation of moment, conservation of energy, and the second law of thermodynamics. A major challenge civil engineers face today is ensuring infrastructure built in coastal environments remains durable, adaptable, and resilient to a changing climate. Chlorides and sulfates are omnipresent in coastal environments and permeate into Portland cement-based infrastructure which leads to chemical restructuring and can alter the mechanical behavior for which the structure was designed to withstand. The objective of the current study is to analyze the mechanical behavior of bentonite clay and Portland cement concrete materials at incremental loading regimes and temperatures to assess the impact of thermal fluctuations on the mechanical behavior of each material. Before running the experiments, a high-resolution X-ray micro-computed tomography (CT) scan will be completed to obtain a 3D model of each sample. For the mechanical test, the Environmental Triaxial Automated System (ETAS) will be used to perform incremental loading to obtain the Young’s Modulus and yield envelope of each material at three temperatures: 20, 50, and 80 °C. The samples will remain inside the rubber sleeve after testing and rescan using the same X-ray micro-CT parameters to obtain a 3D volume of the failed sample. The results from this initial study will help guide subsequent experiments that will integrate samples exposed to salt solutions and address solutions to the modeling and design of structures built in aggressive environments.