A micro–macro approach of permeability evolution in rocks excavation damaged zones

Excavation damaged zone, with significant irreversible deformations and nonnegligible changes in flow and transport properties generally occurs in indurated clay around underground structures. The stress perturbation around the excavation could lead to a significant increase of the permeability physically due to diffuse and/or localized microcracks growth in the material. In the present study, we investigate microcracks-induced damage processes together with the subsequent modification in permeability. The proposed approach is based on a homogenization-based upper bound extended to the context of microcracked media in presence of initial stress. Application of this approach is done on a borehole excavation problem related to the Selfrac in situ experiments on Opalinus Clay. Although, the model fails to quantitatively account for the in situ permeability change (which may also originated from existing macrofractures), its prediction shows a significant evolution of the material permeability around the borehole. This is in qualitative agreement with available data.