Publications

Crushed salt reconsolidation at elevated temperatures

Clayton, Daniel J.; Lee, Moo Y.; Holcomb, David J.; Bronowski, David R.

There is a long history of testing crushed salt as backfill for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant program, but testing was typically done at 100 C or less. Future applications may involve backfilling crushed salt around heat-generating waste packages, where near-field temperatures could reach 250 C or hotter. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of hydrostatic stress on run-of-mine salt at temperatures up to 250 C and pressures to 20 MPa. The results of these tests were compared with analogous modeling results. By comparing the modeling results at elevated temperatures to the experimental results, the adequacy of the current crushed salt reconsolidation model was evaluated. The model and experimental results both show an increase in the reconsolidation rate with temperature. The current crushed salt model predicts the experimental results well at a temperature of 100 C and matches the overall trends, but over-predicts the temperature dependence of the reconsolidation. Further development of the deformation mechanism activation energies would lead to a better prediction of the temperature dependence by the crushed salt reconsolidation model.