Search results for "shale"

Anisotropic Volumetric Response of Shales upon Suction Changes

2016

Anisotropic fabric and volumetric response to suction changes represent two main features of shales, which are involved in several engineering applications. However, a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between these two aspects is still missing. The present work aims to provide a detailed analysis of the coupling between the water retention capacity of shales and their anisotropic behaviour through an advanced experimental methodology. Among the various tested facies of the Opalinus Clay Shale (Mont Terri, Switzerland), the results from the shaly facies are presented in this study. The behaviour of the material is characterized by swelling and shrinkage respectively upon wettin…

Anisotropic volumetric behaviour of Opalinus clay shale upon suction variation

2016

Opalinus clay shale is under consideration to serve as the host geomaterial for the underground storage of nuclear waste in Switzerland. Water retention behaviour and anisotropic behaviour represent two main features of this geomaterial; however, a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between these two features is still lacking. This paper aims to provide a detailed experimental analysis of the coupling between the water retention capacity and the anisotropic behaviour of two facies (shaly and sandy) of the Opalinus clay shale. The response of the tested geomaterials is characterised by an unequal swelling and shrinkage response in directions parallel and perpendicular to the bed…

The Role of Anisotropy on the Volumetric Behaviour of Opalinus Clay upon Suction Change

2017

An experimental investigation to analyse the anisotropic volumetric response of shaly and sandy facies of Opalinus Clay upon suction variations is presented. Obtained results demonstrate the different behaviour of the tested facies to a wetting-drying cycle. The shaly facies exhibits higher water retention capacity and stronger volumetric response than the sandy facies. Anisotropic response is experienced by both facies with the strain perpendicular to bedding higher than in the parallel direction. The sandy facies exhibits a more pronounced anisotropic behaviour in particular during the drying phase. A detailed analysis of the response in the two directions with respect to the bedding orie…

Continental weathering and climatic changes inferred from clay mineralogy and paired carbon isotopes across the early to middle Toarcian in the Paris…

2014

Abstract Lower Toarcian strata (Lower Jurassic) have been extensively studied with a view to understanding the oceanographic, climatic and biological processes that drove the Earth's system into an Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE). For this time period, the evolution of the European marine seaways is now relatively well constrained owing to multiple geochemical studies, but investigations regarding climatic trends in the continental realm remain sparse. In the present study, we test the clay mineralogy as a continental climate-sensitive proxy in the well-documented Sancerre core (southern Paris Basin). We compare variations in the kaolinite content with p CO 2 fluctuations (derived from paired ca…

Testing of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of shales.

2016

Shales are among the most commonly considered geomaterials in current energy-related geomechanical investigations, as they are involved in engineering applications such as the unconventional extraction of natural gas, CO2 sequestration and nuclear waste geological storage. A deep understanding of their hydro-mechanical behaviour is of primary significance for such applications. In this paper selected results on the water retention behaviour and on the high pressure oedometric compression behaviour of shales are presented.

Palaeomagnetic results from the late Precambrian Chela Group of southwest Angola (Dataset)

1992

An insight on the thermo-mechanical behaviour of a shale

2016

In recent years, several shale formations have been employed in geo-energy related engineering fields that foresee the presence of high thermal loads or significant temperature variations. Such thermal conditions are related to a need to reach great depths (several hundred of meters), as in the case of CO2 sequestration and Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) technologies, or to the presence of thermal sources, as in the context of nuclear waste geological disposal. In addition, thermal changes can occur in shale formations through the injection of drilling and fracturing fluids at great depths, where a higher temperature with respect to the one of the injected fluid is encountered as a result…

Thermo-mechanical volume change behaviour of Opalinus Clay

2016

The paper examines the thermo-mechanical volume change behaviour of Opalinus Clay in relation to different stress conditions and overconsolidation ratio (OCR) values and evaluates the impact of temperature on some hydro-mechanical properties of this material. To this aim, a focused experimental campaign consisting in high-temperature/high-pressure oedometric tests has been carried out. The results show that the thermo-mechanical volume change behaviour of Opalinus Clay is heavily affected by the OCR: thermal expansion is found when the heating is carried out at high OCR, whereas irreversible thermal compaction is observed when heat is applied at a vertical effective stress that is sufficien…

3-manifolds which are orbit spaces of diffeomorphisms

2008

Abstract In a very general setting, we show that a 3-manifold obtained as the orbit space of the basin of a topological attractor is either S 2 × S 1 or irreducible. We then study in more detail the topology of a class of 3-manifolds which are also orbit spaces and arise as invariants of gradient-like diffeomorphisms (in dimension 3). Up to a finite number of exceptions, which we explicitly describe, all these manifolds are Haken and, by changing the diffeomorphism by a finite power, all the Seifert components of the Jaco–Shalen–Johannson decomposition of these manifolds are made into product circle bundles.

Geochimica e petrografica di black shales del Livello Bonarelli, sezione di Novara di Sicilia (Monte Peloritani), Sicilicia nord-orientale: Implicazi…

2000

Black shales ad alto potenziale petrolifero, alternati ritmicamente a marne e argilliti, affiorano in associazione con Argille Varicolori (Cretaceo-Paleogene) nei pressi di Novara di Sicilia (Monti Peloritani, Sicilia nord-orientale) costituendo l’espressione sedimentaria di un evento anossico con diffusione globale (OAE2), riferibile al Cenomaniano superiore. I depositi corrispondenti a tale evento sono individuati come “Livello Bonarelli”. In detta successione, le alternanze black shales-marne-argilliti si estendono per uno spessore di circa 11 metri passando verso il basso ad alternanze irregolari di calcari marnosi, marne chiare, marne scure, argilliti e calcareniti (spessore ca. 9 m) c…