Simulations of a coupled hydro-chemo-mechanical system in rocks

A coupled hydro–chemo–mechanical numerical model is developed for these coupledphenomena in many engineering fields.The model has been applied to predicting theresponse of a stressed rockmass column to an injected reactive fluid (reagent) flow.Theresponse includes evolutions of porosity, permeability, reagent and mineral concentrationsduring dissolution.In the model, the progress of dissolution is defined by the change in porosityratio and the porosity increases with dissolution assuming there is no precipitation.Thenumerical evolutions of porosity, permeability, reagent and mineral concentrations during dissolutionare validated against steady state solutions.The model results show that these evolutionsare regulated to a certain extent by the applied external loadings: an applied extensionalstress enhances the progress of the dissolution process while an applied compression stressslows the progress of the dissolution process.