Deformation induced by dissolution of salts in porous media

This paper presents a theoretical work aiming at studying the behaviour of porous material containing salts. A constitutive model including creep is adopted in order to describe the mechanical behavior of the material. A formulation is proposed for the analysis of deformation induced by dissolution of salts due to water uptake. The formulation includes some aspects which are particular for a bituminized waste product but it can be applied to soils and rocks to investigate a similar response which is probable in low permeability geological materials. The proposed formulation coupled with the elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model may provide a powerful tool to model the swelling deformations induced by the uptake of water by the salts in the bituminized radioactive waste materials.