Temperature buffer test – design, instrumentation and measurements

Abstract The Temperature Buffer Test, TBT, is a heated full-scale field experiment carried out jointly by ANDRA and SKB at the SKB Aspo Hard Rock Laboratory in Southeast Sweden. An existing 8 m deep, 1.8 m diameter KBS-3-type deposition hole located at −420 m level has been selected for the test. The objectives are to improve the general understanding of Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical, THM, behavior of buffer materials submitted to severe thermal conditions with temperatures well over 100 °C • during water uptake of partly saturated bentonite-based buffer materials, • and to check, in due time, their properties after water saturation. The test includes two carbon steel heating canisters each 3 m high and 0.6 m diameter, surrounded by 0.6 m of buffer material. There is a 0.2 m thick sand shield between the upper heater and the surrounding bentonite, while the lower heater is surrounded by bentonite only. On top of the stack of bentonite blocks is a confining plug anchored to the rock. In the slot between buffer and rock wall is a sand filter equipped with pipes to control the water pressure at the boundary, which is seldom done with an EBS in situ experiment. Both heater mid-height planes are densely instrumented in order to follow, with direct or indirect methods, buffer THM evolution. Temperature, relative humidity, stress and pore pressure have been monitored since the test start in March 2003. Total water inflow is also monitored. Firstly, the present paper describes the test design, the instrumentation, the plug anchoring system and the system for water boundary pressure control. Second, having described the test, the paper shows different measurements that illustrate evolution of temperature, saturation, suction and swelling pressure in the upper and the lower buffer.