Modification of rock mass permeability in the zone surrounding a shaft in fractured, welded tuff

The excavation of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada requires access through shafts and ramps from the ground surface to the repository horizon. To evaluate the need and performance of the sealing subsystem, it is necessary to predict the modifications in the rock immediately surrounding the shaft. The purpose of this study is to develop a model of permeability changes as a function of radial distance from a shaft. The model is based upon analyses which consider modification in rock mass permeability resulting from stress redistribution and blast damage due to excavation around a shaft. Elastic and elastoplastic stress analyses are performed to estimate the stress distribution for a wide range of rock properties and in situ stress conditions. Changes in stress are related to changes in rock mass permeability using stress-permeability relations for fractures obtained from laboratory and field testing. The effects of blast damage are estimated from case histories. The analyses indicate that rock mass permeability is expected to decline rapidly to the undisturbed value with greater permeability changes occurring at or near the shaft wall. For several conditions evaluated, the equivalent permeability of the modified permeability zone, averaged over an annulus one radius wide around the shaft, ranges from 15 to 80 times the undisturbed rock mass permeability. 61 refs., 24 figs., 6 tabs