Research Capabilities of Sandia's Geomechanics Laboratories

Walter Hermann founded the Geomechanics Department and Geomechanics Laboratory in 1972–1973 to support weapons programs, primarily nuclear testing, effects, and containment studies at the Nevada Test Site. Since then, the Sandia Geomechanics Department has developed a variety of laboratory proficiencies and numerical modeling expertise that support environmental management, nuclear nonproliferation, defense and industry, and basic energy sciences. The Geomechanics Department’s experimental facilities enable study of complex processes and systems through measurement of coupled mechanical, thermal, hydrologic, and chemical properties under a wide range of conditions including very high pressures (1 GPa) and complex load paths. Using both standard and unique capabilities, customer needs for assessment of geomaterial response to natural and engineered conditions are addressed through the design and conduct of sophisticated experiments. JASON (2014) declared the Geomechanics Laboratory to be the flagship facility of its type for the National Nuclear Security Administration and Department of Energy, highlighting its high pressure triaxial and other testing capabilities, available as a DOE user facility well into the foreseeable future.

Making predictions of complex multiphysics response of geomaterials requires quantitative models of the governing deformation, fracture processes, fluid flow, or other behaviors. Building constitutive models and performing analytic and numerical calculations requires information about specific rock properties. Sandia's geomechanics laboratories experimentally simulate in situ conditions at depth in the earth with high pressure, differential stresses, multi-phase fluid flow, high strain rates (10^4 /s), and elevated temperature. The Geomechanics Department’s expertise lies in both validating and developing constitutive models.
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