Pre-compacted elements （disks, tutus） of bentonite/sand mixture are candidate materials for sealing plugs of radioactive waste disposal. Choice of this material is mainly based on its swelling capacity allowing all ...Pre-compacted elements （disks, tutus） of bentonite/sand mixture are candidate materials for sealing plugs of radioactive waste disposal. Choice of this material is mainly based on its swelling capacity allowing all gaps in the system to be sealed, and on its low permeability. When emplaced in the gallery, these elements will start to absorb water from the host rock and swell. Thereby, a swelling pressure will develop in the radial direction against the host rock and in the axial direction against the support structure. In this work, the swelling pressure of a small scale compacted disk of bentonite and sand was experimentally studied in both radial and axial directions. Different swelling kinetics were identified for different dry densities and along different directions. As a rule, the swelling pressure starts increasing quickly, reaches a peak value, decreases a little and finally stabilises. For some dry densities, higher peaks were observed in the radial direction than in the axial direction. The presence of peaks is related to the microstructure change and to the collapse of macro- pores. In parallel to the mechanical tests, microstructure investigation at the sample scale was conducted using microfocus X-ray computed tomography （BCT）. Image observation showed a denser structure in the centre and a looser one in the border, which was also confirmed by image analysis. This structure heterogeneity in the radial direction and the occurrence of macro-pores close to the radial boundary of the sample can explain the large peaks observed in the radial swelling pressure evolution. Another interesting result is the higher anisotropy found at lower bentonite dry densities, which was also analysed by means ofμCT observation of a sample at low bentonite dry density after the end of test. It was found that the macro-pores, especially those between sand grains, were not filled by swelled bentonite, which preserved the anisotropic microstructure caused by uniaxial compression due to the absence of microstructure collapse.展开更多
The micro-CT imaging of vasculature is a powerful tool for evaluation of angiogenesis,a prominent characteristic of hepatic fibrosis.The segment or bifurcation density,which is usually adopted to evaluate the degree o...The micro-CT imaging of vasculature is a powerful tool for evaluation of angiogenesis,a prominent characteristic of hepatic fibrosis.The segment or bifurcation density,which is usually adopted to evaluate the degree of hepatic fibrosis,does not always work and may lead to incorrect assessment,especially when the threedimensional vasculature obtained is imperfect in sample preparation or image collection.In this paper,we propose a new parameter to solve this problem.The experimental results demonstrate that the method is robust and reliable,and is practical for angiogenesis evaluation,despite of image data imperfections.This quantitative analysis method can be extended to investigate other kinds of diseases in which vasculature change is a key indicator.展开更多
Soil-rock mixture （SRM） is a unique type of geomaterial characterized by a heterogeneous composition and a complicated structure. It is intractable for the continuum-based soil and rock mechanics theories to accurat...Soil-rock mixture （SRM） is a unique type of geomaterial characterized by a heterogeneous composition and a complicated structure. It is intractable for the continuum-based soil and rock mechanics theories to accurately characterize and predict the SRM＇s mechanical properties. This study reports a novel numerical method incorporating microfocus computed tomography and PFC3D codes to probe the deformation and failure processes of SRM. The three-dimensional （3D） PFC models that represent the SRM＇s complex structures were built. By simulating the entire failure process in PFC3D, the SRM＇s strength, elastic modulus and crack growth were obtained. The influence of rock ratios on the SRM＇s strength, deformation and failure processes, as well as its internal mesoscale mechanism, were analyzed. By comparing simulation results with experimental data, it was verified that the 3D PFC models were in good agreement with SRM＇s real structure and the SRM＇s compression process, deformation and failure patterns; its intrinsic mesomechanism can be effectively analyzed based on such 3D PFC models.展开更多
文摘Pre-compacted elements （disks, tutus） of bentonite/sand mixture are candidate materials for sealing plugs of radioactive waste disposal. Choice of this material is mainly based on its swelling capacity allowing all gaps in the system to be sealed, and on its low permeability. When emplaced in the gallery, these elements will start to absorb water from the host rock and swell. Thereby, a swelling pressure will develop in the radial direction against the host rock and in the axial direction against the support structure. In this work, the swelling pressure of a small scale compacted disk of bentonite and sand was experimentally studied in both radial and axial directions. Different swelling kinetics were identified for different dry densities and along different directions. As a rule, the swelling pressure starts increasing quickly, reaches a peak value, decreases a little and finally stabilises. For some dry densities, higher peaks were observed in the radial direction than in the axial direction. The presence of peaks is related to the microstructure change and to the collapse of macro- pores. In parallel to the mechanical tests, microstructure investigation at the sample scale was conducted using microfocus X-ray computed tomography （BCT）. Image observation showed a denser structure in the centre and a looser one in the border, which was also confirmed by image analysis. This structure heterogeneity in the radial direction and the occurrence of macro-pores close to the radial boundary of the sample can explain the large peaks observed in the radial swelling pressure evolution. Another interesting result is the higher anisotropy found at lower bentonite dry densities, which was also analysed by means ofμCT observation of a sample at low bentonite dry density after the end of test. It was found that the macro-pores, especially those between sand grains, were not filled by swelled bentonite, which preserved the anisotropic microstructure caused by uniaxial compression due to the absence of microstructure collapse.
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(No.2010CB834301)CAS-CSIRO Collaborative Research Project(GJHZ1303)+1 种基金the Shanghai Municipal Natural Science Foundation(No.11ZR1407800)the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.U1232205,81430087 and81271574)
文摘The micro-CT imaging of vasculature is a powerful tool for evaluation of angiogenesis,a prominent characteristic of hepatic fibrosis.The segment or bifurcation density,which is usually adopted to evaluate the degree of hepatic fibrosis,does not always work and may lead to incorrect assessment,especially when the threedimensional vasculature obtained is imperfect in sample preparation or image collection.In this paper,we propose a new parameter to solve this problem.The experimental results demonstrate that the method is robust and reliable,and is practical for angiogenesis evaluation,despite of image data imperfections.This quantitative analysis method can be extended to investigate other kinds of diseases in which vasculature change is a key indicator.
基金Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the State Key Research Development Program of China （Grant No. 2016YFC0600705）, the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Grant Nos. 51674251, 51727807, 51374213）, the National Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China （Grant No. 51125017）, the Fund for Creative Research and Development Group Program of Jiangsu Province （Grant No. 2014-27）, and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions （Grant No. PAPD2014）, and an open project sponsored by the State Key Labo- ratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering （Grant SKLGDUE K1318） for their financial support.
文摘Soil-rock mixture （SRM） is a unique type of geomaterial characterized by a heterogeneous composition and a complicated structure. It is intractable for the continuum-based soil and rock mechanics theories to accurately characterize and predict the SRM＇s mechanical properties. This study reports a novel numerical method incorporating microfocus computed tomography and PFC3D codes to probe the deformation and failure processes of SRM. The three-dimensional （3D） PFC models that represent the SRM＇s complex structures were built. By simulating the entire failure process in PFC3D, the SRM＇s strength, elastic modulus and crack growth were obtained. The influence of rock ratios on the SRM＇s strength, deformation and failure processes, as well as its internal mesoscale mechanism, were analyzed. By comparing simulation results with experimental data, it was verified that the 3D PFC models were in good agreement with SRM＇s real structure and the SRM＇s compression process, deformation and failure patterns; its intrinsic mesomechanism can be effectively analyzed based on such 3D PFC models.
