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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records

The number of catalytic cycles in an enzyme’s lifetime and why it matters to metabolic engineering

Metabolic engineering uses enzymes as parts to build biosystems for specified tasks. Although a part’s working life and failure modes are key engineering performance indicators, this is not yet so in metabolic engineering because it is not known how long enzymes remain functional in vivo or whether cumulative deterioration (wear-out), sudden random failure, or other causes drive replacement. Consequently, enzymes cannot be engineered to extend life and cut the high energy costs of replacement. Guided by catalyst engineering, we adopted catalytic cycles until replacement (CCR) as a metric for enzyme functional life span in vivo. CCR is the number of catalytic cycles that an enzyme mediates in vivo before failure or replacement, i.e., metabolic flux rate/protein turnover rate. We used estimated fluxes and measured protein turnover rates to calculate CCRs for ~100–200 enzymes each from Lactococcus lactis, yeast, and Arabidopsis. CCRs in these organisms had similar ranges (<10 3 to >10 7 ) but different median values (3–4 × 10 4 in L. lactis and yeast versus 4 × 10 5 in Arabidopsis). In all organisms, enzymes whose substrates, products, or mechanisms can attack reactive amino acid residues had significantly lower median CCR values than other enzymes. Taken with literature on mechanism-based inactivation, the latter finding supports the proposal that 1) random active-site damage by reaction chemistry is an important cause of enzyme failure, and 2) reactive noncatalytic residues in the active-site region are likely contributors to damage susceptibility. Enzyme engineering to raise CCRs and lower replacement costs may thus be both beneficial and feasible.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

System Engineers and Decisions: It?s All about Knowledge

In order to guarantee that a system meets adequate levels of reliability and availability, system performances are continuously monitored and analyzed thanks to the technological advancements driving the Industry 4.0 revolution. An Industry 4.0 approach is typically based on advanced statistical, big data mining, machine learning, and internet-of-things methods designed to detect anomalies in the behavior of system, detect the most likely failure modes, and provide indications to system engineers on when maintenance activities should be performed before system performance are deemed unacceptable (which can be generated by diagnostic and prognostic methods). However, these analyses, which are designed to automatize and increase the efficacy of the system maintenance program, require large amount of data which can come in various forms: numeric, textual, images, sounds etc. Such data constitutes the historic knowledge benchmark to track system performances and support system engineer decisions. Here we claim that data is not sufficient to support this kind of analyses when applied to systems characterized by complex architectures and behaviors. Robust system engineer decisions require the ability to understand the system operational context that lies behind the observed data elements. In this respect, system models are in fact necessary to “put data in context” and capture relationships between data elements. Industry 4.0 methods require in fact contextual knowledge as a basis upon which hypotheses can be generated and assumptions tested. In our view, for complex systems, model-based system engineering (MBSE) models can afford this contextual knowledge, as they are typically used to describe systems architecture and dynamic behaviors. System knowledge is here intended as the blending of collected data and system architecture which takes the form of a “knowledge graph”. A knowledge graph is a database which consists of a large set of nodes (in our case an entity can be either a data or an MBSE element) which are linked to each other. The types of nodes and links follow a pre-defined topology, sometimes also refers as an ontology, that is designed to fit the actual decisions that needs to be performed. We show here how a knowledge graph can be defined to support system engineer maintenance decisions and how the same graph can be built based on system MBSE models and pre-processed data from numeric (through anomaly detections and diagnostic methods) and textual elements (through technical language processing TLP).

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The effect of differential mineral shrinkage on crack formation and network geometry

Rock, concrete, and other engineered materials are often composed of several minerals that change volumetrically in response to variations in the moisture content of the local environment. Such differential shrinkage is caused by varying shrinkage rates between mineral compositions during dehydration. Using both 3D X-ray imaging of geo-architected samples and peridynamic (PD) numerical simulations, we show that the spatial distribution of the clay affects the crack network geometry with distributed clay particles yielding the most complex crack networks and percent damage (99.56%), along with a 60% reduction in material strength. We also demonstrate that crack formation, growth, coalescence, and distribution during dehydration, are controlled by the differential shrinkage rates between a highly shrinkable clay and a homogeneous mortar matrix. Sensitivity tests performed with the PD models show a clay shrinkage parameter of 0.4 yields considerable damage, and reductions in the parameter can result in a significant reduction in fracturing and an increase in material strength. Additionally, isolated clay inclusions induced localized fracturing predominantly due to debonding between the clay and matrix. These insights indicate differential shrinkage is a source of potential failure in natural and engineered barriers used to sequester anthropogenic waste.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

The Corrective Maintenance Paradigm Shift at Hanford's Tank Farms - 20077

Hanford's Tank Farms facilities have been used to safely store waste for over 70 years, with the first single-shell tanks being constructed in 1943. Tank Farm facilities consist of 149 single-shell tanks, 28 double-shell tanks, an evaporator facility, and wastewater treatment facilities. Tank Farm facilities are aging, with a tremendous corrective maintenance burden on the Tank Farm contractor. The mission of Tank Farm facilities is soon changing from waste storage to waste staging for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). WTP operations will demand a significant increase in Tank Farm facility operations, in which corrective maintenance outage windows will shrink drastically. This realization has forced the Tank Farm contractor to consider a paradigm shift in Tank Farm facilities Maintenance planning, and the use of reliability Engineering tools. The Tank Farm Production Operations Engineering Cognizant System Engineering (CSE) organization has led the way in motivating this paradigm shift. This shift has been realized through the use of: 1) technical exchange with other Department of Energy (DOE) contractors to develop improvements in the CSE program, 2) a shift from the use of lagging to leading system health indicators, and 3) a Plant Health Committee to unite Engineering, Operations, and Maintenance personnel toward a productive maintenance strategy. The CSE organization has held several technical exchanges with other DOE contractors to discuss CSE concepts, and how to better maintain aging infrastructure. The technical exchange with other contractors has greatly reduced the time required to make improvements in the Tank Farm CSE program. Other DOE contractors have already faced issues surrounding aging infrastructure, and have vast experience in improving the reliability and usable life of structures and components in nuclear facilities. The past CSE program used lagging health indicators to determine the health of systems. The key lagging indicator used to determine system health was availability, which is the percentage of time that a facility was ready for operation compared to the time the facility was demanded for operation. Availability was a good indicator of health in the waste storage mission of Tank Farms, where safe storage was the most important function of the facility, and where maintenance outage windows were typically long-duration. In current and future operations, outage windows are reducing, resulting in the need for much more reliable systems. Systems that have had high availability may suddenly become inoperable due to a failed component or sub-system. In several instances, the use of availability as an indicator of system health failed to predict system/equipment failure before its occurrence. In discussions with other DOE contractors, a set of reliability tools, including leading indicators of health, has been implemented in the CSE program. This primarily involves the use of failure modes and effects analysis and the study of equipment failure to develop system monitoring plans that focus on trending data to detect oncoming equipment failure ahead of time. In addition, the use of a Plant Health Committee has added significantly to the paradigm shift from a corrective maintenance philosophy to the use of predictive and preventive maintenance. The Plant Health Committee is a chartered team consisting of Engineering, Operations, and Maintenance personnel. CSEs use this forum to present the results of their performance monitoring, including the presentation of health via leading health indicators. The most positive aspect of this committee is the communication that it creates within these critical organizations. The Operations and Maintenance organization benefit from focusing maintenance on the reliability-centered focus provided by Engineering. Engineering benefits from the operational experience of the Operations organization and from the failure data that can be provided by Maintenance personnel. The continued use of the Plant Health Committee is expected to further decrease maintenance outage times, in better support of oncoming 24/7 operations. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Imaging APO-BMI with Micro X-ray Computed Tomography (CT)

APO-BMI is a high-strength, high-temperature, and low-density foam comprised of 1,2-bis(2-aminophenylthio) ethane (APO-Link, formerly Apocure-601) and 4,4’-bismaleimidodiphenylmethane (BMI) that is used structural applications within the aerospace and weapons manufacturing sectors. APO-link is the diamine reagent used to synthesize BMI, a thermosetting resin. This resin can remain in a molten, flowing state for an extended period of time before crosslinking, allowing addition of glass or carbon microballoons to form its final structure. A portion of the current project was to observe the thermal effects on the structural integrity of the foam associated with exposure to an ion beam. Features within the foam were imaged using micro X-ray computed tomography (CT). The resulting imaging provided evidence that microballoon structure remained mostly intact at the points of failure, indicating that the failure of the material was occurring in the binder material.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Physical Properties of Hilti HIT-RE 500 V3 After Irradiation: Slant Shear, Tensile, Flexural, and Compressive

There are various applications in which epoxy adhesives may be used within hot-cell environments. These epoxies currently see limited use within hot cells since it is known that organics see degradation after small doses even as low as 50 kilogray (kGy). These losses in physical property strengths limit the use of these epoxies to non-structural applications. In modern construction, however, the use of epoxies to bond structural components such as rebar or threaded anchors is becoming increasingly prevalent. To employ these types of materials the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has begun investigating the specific degradation properties of epoxies for use in structural applications in environments where radiation is present. Hilti HIT-RE 500 V3 is used extensively in new construction and renovation projects across the world. The INL has conducted various tests on this epoxy for low dose environments. These tests include tensile, flexural, compression, and slant shear tests following the American Society for Testing Material International (ASTM) standards D638, D790, D695, and C882/882M respectively. Two sample sets for each test were created where the baseline specimens were not irradiated, and another set was irradiated to an accumulated dose of approximately 50-60 kGy. All the samples were destructively tested and analyzed focusing on the change in physical properties, examples of these tests are shown in Figures 1-4. Tensile testing results indicate a 0.9% loss in maximum load capacity, a 0.5% loss in tensile stress at maximum load, a 1.4% loss in tensile strain at break, and a 15% decrease in modulus of elasticity. Flexural testing results display an increase in all the following: 12% in strain at maximum load, 10% in maximum load capacity, 5% in stress at maximum load, and 3% in young’s modulus. The compressive physical properties after irradiation display a 1% increase in maximum load, a 3% decrease in stress at yield, and a 5% decrease in modulus of elasticity. The maximum compressive stress saw no measurable change after irradiation. The slant shear specimens after irradiation displayed a 2% increase in maximum load capacity and maximum compressive stress. Though a structural analysis would have to be completed as is normal for building design the increases and decreases in the measured physical properties indicate that this material may be used for structural applications in low dose hot-cell environments without adhesive failure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Experiments and modelling of adhesive failure initiation of an epoxy underfill: a study of electronic packaging survivability

Epoxy underfills can be implemented in electronic packaging to enhance solder joint reliability of surface mounted components. However, it is important for an engineer to have a failure criterion that can be used for failure predictions and redesign of electronic assemblies. For this study, data from epoxy bond failure in mock electronic part assemblies were correlated to finite element analyses to predict adhesive failure initiation. Experiments were performed to determine failure loads for various loading locations and nonlinear viscoelastic analyses were performed for the same loading locations to determine a maximum principal strain failure parameter. Predictions showed that a maximum principal strain failure parameter defined from one test could be used as an indicator of adhesive failure of an epoxy bond undergoing other modes of loading. Failure initiation predictions matched experimental data using a maximum principal strain failure parameter for an epoxy bond undergoing mixed modes of loading for both unfilled and alumina oxide filled 828DEA epoxy. Such experimental setup is deemed appropriate for future epoxy testing.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Effects of Electron Irradiation on Candidate Materials for Target Window in Accelerator-Driven Mo-99 Production

Room-temperature (RT) axial tensile tests were conducted in 2018 and 2021 with flat, sub-sized, dog-boned samples of non-irradiated and irradiated Inconel 718 and irradiated beryllium (Be). The sample gauge length was 7.62 mm. Tensile properties of interest are the engineering yield stress (YS), ultimate tensile stress (UTS), uniform elongation (UE) and total elongation (TE). The electron dose of the 2021 samples was ≈2 times the dose of samples tested in 2018. Relative dose rates of 0, 1 (2018), and 2 (2021) are assigned to these samples. The 2021 electron-irradiated Be samples were brittle with a low failure stress of 338±64 MPa based on two samples. The failures occurred in the gauge section. The 2018 results for electron-irradiated Be indicated a slight decrease in ductility and strength for the one electron-irradiated sample that failed in the gauge section.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗

A functional global sensitivity measure and efficient reliability sensitivity analysis with respect to statistical parameters

Sensitivity analysis and reliability assessment are two important aspects of structural and system safety. Epistemic uncertainty with respect to probabilistic model of input parameters due to lack of knowledge is present in many scarce-data applications and complicates the characterization of uncertainty in model response. In this article, we present two importance measures to evaluate the impact of distribution parameters on the probability distribution function (PDF) of the output and the failure probability. The epistemic uncertainty associated with the distribution parameters is modeled as random variables. Additionally, a modified extended polynomial chaos expansion (MEPCE) approach is introduced in which aleatory and epistemic random variables are modeled and propagated simultaneously while allowing the separate assessment for any single epistemic variable. A MEPCE-based kernel density estimation (KDE) construction provides a composite map from each epistemic variable to the response PDF. The functional global sensitivity index of the PDF with respect to the distribution parameters is thus derived, as a function of output, which is both more informative and more efficient than standard scalar sensitivity measures. Reliability sensitivity indices can be readily evaluated by integrating the global sensitivity index function over the failure zone. Three illustrative examples are used to demonstrate the proposed methodology.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Substation Secondary Asset Health Monitoring and Management System (SSHM)

Electric Power Group, LLC (EPG) was awarded DOE OE0000850 to design, develop, and demonstrate a real-time software application for substation secondary equipment health monitoring and management at host utility American Electric Power (AEP), a cost share partner. This project addresses the need for monitoring substation equipment health and providing operators with tools to identify and take pre-emptive action to avoid catastrophic equipment failure. By monitoring synchrophasor data in real time, data anomalies that indicate potential asset failure can be detected and alerts can be sent to operators in time to take corrective actions. EPG developed two data driven algorithms to identify abnormal equipment signature patterns as well as a method using substation linear state estimation (SLSE). The software has been deployed on hardened PC’s and tested and validated for cost share partner AEP’s substations - 138kV and 765 kV. The SSHM software has been accepted by AEP and final demonstration of DOE - OE0000850 for AEP and DOE was successfully completed on March 17th, 2020. EPG developed the Substation Secondary Asset Health Monitoring (SSHM) Platform to analyze equipment failure signatures in PMU data and alert substation personnel when pre-emptive inspection, repairs and other actions are warranted to prevent potential catastrophic failures. This is the first system that automatically monitors the health of substation secondary assets and alerts users to emerging failures using synchrophasor measurements. SSHM uses high resolution PMU data from PTs, CTs, and CCVTs to analyze equipment signatures and identify anomalies that are precursor indicators of potential equipment failure. When an anomaly is detected, there is a likelihood of potential failure of monitored equipment, the system alerts the user with visual alarms including alarm trend charts and indicator lights on a oneline diagram of the substation.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Hungary 908 Event - Risk Based Graded Approach to ITM

This presentation, Risk-Based, Graded Approach to Insider Threat Mitigation: Human Measures, introduces a structured framework for managing insider threat risk using internationally recognized guidance from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nuclear Security Series No. 8-G (Rev. 1) and the Joint Statement on Mitigating Insider Threats (INFCIRC/908). The presentation emphasizes that effective insider threat mitigation (ITM) depends on both positional controls, which manage inherent risk based on access, authority, and knowledge, and human measures, which address residual risk reflected in behavior, motivation, and reliability. Using a risk-informed and graded approach, the presentation outlines methods for identifying and prioritizing high-risk positions, applying layered organizational controls, and integrating human reliability mechanisms such as the Behavior Observation Program (BOP), Fitness-for-Duty (FFD) evaluations, Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), and Nuclear Security Culture (NSC). The human-focused portion examines behavioral and organizational indicators of opportunity, vulnerability, motivation, and crisis, demonstrating how early detection, deterrence, and response can prevent insider events. The session concludes with a case review of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station incident involving engineer George Galatis. The case illustrates how weak leadership and a poor safety culture can create conditions for failure and how a comprehensive ITM framework could have altered the outcome. The objective of this presentation is to help practitioners apply a risk-based, graded philosophy to human factors and promote a culture of accountability, communication, and resilience within nuclear organizations.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Understanding Microstructural Effects on Dynamic Performance Towards the Development of Shock Metamaterials

With the recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM), long-range periodic lattice assemblies are being developed for vibration and shock mitigation components in aerospace and military applications with unique geometric and topological structures. There has been extensive work in understanding the static properties associated with varying topology of these lattice architectures, but there is almost no understanding of microstructural affects in such structures under high-strain rate dynamic loading conditions. Here we report the shock behavior of lattices with varying intrinsic grain structures achieved by post process annealing. High resolution 316L stainless steel lattices were 3D printed by a laser-powder bed fusion machine and characterized by computed tomography. Subsequent annealing resulted in stress-relieved and recrystallized lattices. Overall the lattices had strong cubic texture aligning with the x-, y- and z-directions of the build with a preference outside the build direction (z). The recrystallized sample had more equiaxed polygonal grains and a layer of BCC ferrite at the surface of the structure approximately 1 grain thick. Upon dynamic compression the as-deposited lattice showed steady compaction behavior while the heat-treated lattices exhibit negative velocity behavior indicative of failure. We attribute this to the stiffer BCC ferrite in the annealed lattices becoming damaged and fragmenting during compression.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Reinforced Ammo Can Validation Test Report for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

A research effort was conducted to investigate the effects of an unintentional internal detonation of energetic materials on a small transportation container called the “Reinforced Ammo Can” (RAC), which is currently approved for the transport of energetic materials up to 2 grams net explosive weight (NEW) onsite at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The project used experimental testing of the containers based on simulated results conducted by a Missouri S & T explosives engineering graduate student while on an internship working in explosives safety at LLNL. The proposed experimental testing consisted of 20 central detonation tests in separate Reinforced Ammo Can containers to verify their high explosive (HE) containment capability. RAC containers are required for transporting secondary explosives on site at LLNL Site 200 in quantities between 300 mg and 2 grams of Trinitrotoluene (TNT) equivalent NEW. Currently, the LLNL Environmental Safety and Health (ES&H) Manual states that the RAC containers are permissible for on-site transportation of secondary explosives up to 2 grams NEW by approved HE handlers with the approval of an Explosives Safety Expert (ESE). Simulated results indicated that tensile failure of the closure mechanism on the container is the most likely failure mode, and showed potential occurrence at the 2 gram NEW threshold. Experimental validation tests were conducted indicating failure/rupture of the containers lid with venting of the detonation products at the 2 gram NEW test threshold with an explosive mass safety factor of 1.3. Failure consisted of impact opening the container latch mechanism resulting in potential ejection of the lid depending on the orientation of the charge within the confinement. This analysis solely is an evaluation of the response of the containment if a detonation were to occur, it does NOT consider the probability of such an event.

42 ENGINEERING↗

HEAF Cable Fragility Testing at the Solar Furnace at the NSTTF

In order to establish a zone of influence (ZOI) due to a high energy arcing fault (HEAF) environment, the fragility of the targets must be determined. The high heat flux/short duration exposure of a HEAF is considerably different than that of a traditional hydrocarbon fire, which previous research has addressed. The previous failure metrics (e.g., internal jacket temperature of a cable exposed to a fire) were based on low heat flux/long duration exposures. Because of this, evaluation of different physics and failure modes was considered to evaluate the fragility of cables exposed to a HEAF. Tests on cable targets were performed at high heat flux/short duration exposures to gain insight on the relevant physics and failure modes. These tests yielded data on several relevant failure modes, including electrical failure and sustained ignition. Additionally, the results indicated a relationship between the total energy of exposure and the damage state of the cable target. This data can be used to inform the fragility of the targets.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Deep learning model to detect various synchrophasor data anomalies

High-density synchrophasors provide valuable information for power grid situational awareness, operation and control. Unfortunately, due to factors including communication instability and hardware failure, their data quality can be greatly deteriorated by anomalies. Since the anomalies can impact the performance of the synchrophasor applications, it is of paramount significance to propose a model to detect anomalies in synchrophasor. In this study, a convolutional neural network model is established to detect and classify the anomalies in the synchrophasor measurements. Additionally, four types of anomalies observed in actual synchrophasors including erroneous patterns, random spikes, missing points and high-frequency interferences are considered in this study. The proposed model is extensively evaluated via field-collected measurements from the synchrophasor network in Jiangsu grid, China. The superior performance of the proposed model indicates the great potential of using deep learning for the detection of abnormal synchrophasor measurements.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Initial Observations from AGR 5/6/7 Capsule 1

The fourth and final irradiation experiment in the Advanced Reactor Technologies (ART) Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) fuel development and qualification program is designated as AGR-5/6/7. Data collected from the fabrication, irradiation, and post-irradiation examination (PIE) of this tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel are intended to serve as the primary data set for the qualification of this fuel for use in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (INL 2021, Collin 2018b). However, data collected from the three preceding irradiations (i.e., AGR-1, AGR-2, and AGR-3/4) may also be used to supplement data collected from AGR-5/6/7. All components of the AGR-5/6/7 fuel (i.e., UCO kernels, TRISO coatings, and fuel compacts) were produced on an engineering scale at BWXT (Lynchburg, Virginia USA) according to the fuel specification (Marshall 2017). This fuel was irradiated in the northeast flux trap (NEFT) at the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho national Laboratory (INL) from February 16, 2018 to July 22, 2020 (Pham et al. 2021). Measurements in the fission product monitoring system (FPMS) indicated unexpected and significant numbers of failures of TRISO particles in Capsule 1 near the end of the sixth irradiation cycle (ATR Cycle 166A). In the fourth cycle (ATR Cycle 164B) and beyond, the sweep gas flow became very low (presumably from degradation of the capsule gas outlet line via an unidentified mechanism), and the program deliberately isolated Capsule 1 from gas flow periodically. In later cycles, attempts to reestablish any kind of flow in Capsule 1 were unsuccessful. With little or no flow through Capsule 1, FPMS measurements and enumerations of failed particles in Capsule 1 were difficult or impossible as was the ability to control the helium/neon gas mixture used for temperature control. Gas flows and fission gas activity in the effluent gas from the other AGR-5/6/7 capsules were also impacted by the Capsule 1 gas flow issues and the large increase in fission gas released from the Capsule 1.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Development and testing of a performance evaluation methodology to assess the reliability of occupancy sensor systems in residential buildings

With the emergence of advanced occupancy sensor technologies to better detect occupancy in buildings, a universal methodology and metrics are required to evaluate and report sensor systems’ reliability and compare the performance across multiple sensor systems. Herein this research presents a methodology to assess the reliability of occupancy sensor systems in residential buildings in a controlled laboratory environment, including both “typical” and “failure” testing scenarios. The developed methodology was then implemented to evaluate a novel occupancy detection sensor system’s reliability. “Typical” testing evaluates the overall accuracy of the sensor system, which suggest how reliable the occupancy sensor system is over time. Results show that on average, the precision and recall are 0.75 and 0.70, indicating similar numbers of false positives and false negatives across the dataset. The overall accuracy of the tested sensor system was 62.4% to 76.4%. Failure testing results indicate whether there are influential variables impacting the sensor performance. For the tested sensor system, the number of occupants, presence of large objects, presence of interior light sources, and number of doors are not influential, while lighting level, location of occupants, additional door in the entry/exit area, and having the TV on are variables determined to impact the sensor system performance.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Micromechanics of Fracture Propagation During Multistage Stress Relaxation and Creep in Brittle Rocks

Time-dependent rock deformation caused by the initiation and growth of fractures leads to the weakening of the rock mass. Understanding the fracturing mechanisms involved in the time-dependent behavior in brittle rocks is very important and to achieve this goal, a systematic series of three types of experiments was performed on double-flawed prismatic Barre granite specimens under unconfined compression. The first series aimed to identify the failure mechanism in the short-term failure mode under monotonic loading, the, second series involved multistage relaxation (constant strain) experiments to analyze the damage at different strain levels, and the third series explored the fracture propagation under multistage creep (constant load) experiments. The spatial and temporal evolution of cracking mechanisms were evaluated using the acoustic emission (AE) and two-dimensional digital image correlation (2D-DIC) techniques to observe the whole crack growth process as well as the accumulated inelastic strain at the specified region of interest. Results suggest that in the case of multistage creep experiments, the time to failure was less compared to the multistage relaxation, when loaded above the crack damage threshold (CD) estimated from the monotonic testing. Furthermore, the frequency magnitude distribution of the AE events generated in the three loading conditions followed the Gutenberg Richter model. A relatively lower b-value was obtained for the creep experiments, indicative of high energy AE events and faster crack growth. In addition, the AE and DIC results also revealed high evolution of tensile cracks at-different stages of creep and relaxation compared to shear and mixed-mode cracks.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗