Full field investigation of salt deformation at room temperature: cooperation of crystal plasticity and grain sliding

International audienceWe observed with optical and scanning electron microscopy halite samples during uniaxial compression. Surface displacement fields were retrieved from digital images taken at different loading stages thanks to digital image correlation (DIC) techniques, on the basis of which we could 1) compute global and local strain fields, 2) identify two co-operational deformation mechanisms. The latter were 1) crystal slip plasticity (CSP), as evidenced by the occurrence of slip lines and computed discrete intracrystalline slip bands at the grain surfaces, 2) interfacial micro-cracking and grain boundary sliding (GBS), as evidenced by the computed relative interfacial displacements. The heterogeneities of the strain fields at the aggregate and at the grain scale, and the local contributions of each mechanism were clearly related to the microstructure, i.e. the relative crystallographic orientations of neighboring grains and the interfacial orientations with respect to the principal stress

Multi-scale viscoplastic behaviour of Halite: In-situ SEM full field measurements, a micro-mechanical approach

Halite geological formations are already extensively used for underground storage of hydrocarbons. For example, the entire USA federal reserve of petrol resides in deep (500 - 1000 m) artificial salt caverns, which are realized by controlled dissolution. In France, many such salt caverns are used for storage of natural gas by GDF. Salt caverns and carries are also intended to become nuclear waste repositories. At this point, salt caverns are also seriously envisaged for the daily storage of energy from renewable, but intermittent sources (photovoltaic, Aeolian), under the form of compressed air. Halite mechanical behaviour was extensively studied for the purpose of safe geothechnical applications. Halite is a ductile type rock. Its differed (time-dependent) mechanical response dominates by far, and therefore deep salt caverns experience convergence (closure), which may result in catastrophic subsidence of the overlaying geological layers. Hence, a particular attention was drawn to characterize salt single crystal creep properties (active slip systems and critical resolved shear stresses), and the rheology of poly-crystalline salt, at various temperatures, pressures, differential stresses and water contents (Ter Heege et al., 2007). But, most studies were concerned with macroscopically derived flow laws, corresponding to rather high differential stresses (as compared with those experienced on site), where crystal slip plasticity (CSP) dominates. But, many studies have also shown that halite is very sensitive to solution-precipitation creep (SPC) mechanisms, which may result in solution transfer accommodated grain boundary sliding (GBS). Conversely, some recent studies report that halite is able to flow at ambient conditions, and under very small loads, with strain rates much faster (four orders of magnitude) than those extrapolated from high stress experiments (Bérest et al., 2005). Though, the specific creep micro-mechanisms were not identified, Bérest et al. (2005) invoked possible SPC. Additionally, the effects on long term behaviour of cyclic loading (fatigue) are still poorly known. It is therefore still questionable weather it is really possible to safely extrapolate the laboratory data to the long term envisaged geotechnical applications. To answer we need i) additional experimental work in order to up date the deformation mechanism maps on the basis of better identified micro-physical mechanisms and quantification of their respective activity; and ii) numerical modelling at the scales of the material, and of the underground storage structures, in respect with the appropriated thermo-hygro-mechaniclal loadings. In the present work, we present our preliminary investigation of viscoplastic global and local responses of synthetic fine grained (50 - 500 m) halite by the means of full field measurements (FFM) of local strain by digital image correlation (DIC) during simple compression in-situ SEM (Doumalain et al., 2003). Figure 1 shows a typical loading curve obtained incrementally at the constant strain rate of c.a. 5x10-5 s-1. CSP evidenced by the development of slip lines on the free grain surfaces, and characterized by quasi-linear strain hardening, dominates the overall response up to several % of strain (microfracturing did not appear before 8 % strain). Yet, at the scale of the microstructure, the development of viscoplastic strain is heterogeneous, as shown by the strain maps obtained by DIC and corresponding to four incremental stages of the loading sequence. The heterogeneity of the strain field relates to the loading boundary conditions and to the local microstructure, such crystal size and orientation (which is characterized by electron back scattering diffraction, EBSD). Such micromechanical approach aims to provide the basis for the development of FE (finite element) computational CSP of polycrystalline halite

Very slow creep tests on rock samples

International audienceTwelve years ago, creep tests at very low deviatoric stress were performed on an Etrez salt sample in the Varangéville Mine. Recently, a new testing campaign was performed on various salt samples to gain further insight on salt behavior. Creep tests are performed under a 0.1 MPa uniaxial loading on rock-salt samples from the Varangéville and Avery Island Mines and under a 0.24 MPa uniaxial loading on a crushed-salt sample. To minimize the effects of temperature variations, testing devices were placed in an underground mine room, where temperature fluctuations are of the order of one-hundredth of a degree Celsius. The me-chanical loading is provided by dead weights. The deformations were measured through special displacement sensors with a resolution of 1/80 µm. A typical steady-state strain rate reached after 6 months is -2.4 × 10-12 s-1. The influence of air hygrometry, which is approximately 74%RH in the mine, is smaller than expected

Software Diversity: Challenges to handle the imposed, Opportunities to harness the chosen

National audienceDiversity emerges as a critical concern that spans all activities in software engineering (from design to verification, from deployment to runtime resilience) and appears in all sorts of domains, which rely on software intensive systems, from systems of systems to pervasive combinations of Internet of Things and Internet of Services. If these domains are apparently radically different, we envision a strong convergence of the scientific principles underpinning their construction and validation towards flexible and open yet dependable systems. In this paper, we discuss the software engineering challenges raised by these requirements for flexibility and openness, focusing on four dimensions of diversity: the diversity of functionalities required by the different customers; the diversity of languages used by the stakeholders involved in the construction of these systems; the diversity of runtime environments in which software has to run and adapt; the diversity of failures against which the system must be able to react. In particular, we want to emphasize the challenges for handling imposed diversity, as well as the opportunities to leverage chosen diversity. The main challenge is that software diversity imposes to integrate the fact that software must adapt to changes in the requirements and environment -- in all development phases and in unpredictable ways. Yet, exploiting and increasing software diversity is a great opportunity to allow the spontaneous exploration of alternative software solutions and proactively prepare for unforeseen changes. Concretely, we want to provide software engineers with the ability: to characterize an 'envelope' of possible variations; to compose 'envelopes' (to discover new macro envelopes in an opportunistic manner); to dynamically synthesize software inside a given envelop

Etude expérimentale du comportement viscoplastique d'un polycristal de sel-gemme synthétique.

Nous présentons les résultats expérimentaux à différentes échelles obtenus sur un polycristal de NaCl synthétique : essais de compression uniaxiale, couplés à des mesures de champs cinématiques, obtenus par corrélation d'images numériques acquises in-situ, sous MEB. Différents mécanismes de déformation plastique sont observés, glissement intracristallin mais aussi glissement aux interfaces. Une étude 3D par tomographie RX complète les mesures de surface

Étude multi-échelle des mécanismes de déformation ductile de polycristaux synthétiques de chlorure de sodium.

There is a renewed interest in the study of the rheology of halite since salt cavities are considered for waste repositories or energy storage. This research benefits from the development of observation techniques at the micro-scale which allow precise characterizations of microstructures, deformation mechanisms and strain fields. A procedure to make synthetic halite samples of different grains sizes has been devised. Macroscopic tests have been made to compare the behavior of synthetic samples with the one of natural salt. Uniaxial compression tests have been performed with a conventional press and with a specific rig fitted inside a scanning electron microscope. Digital images of the surface of the sample have been recorded at several loading stages. Surface markers allow the measure of displacements by means of Digital Image Correlation (DIC) techniques. Global and local strain fields are then computed using DIC and ad hoc data processing. Analysis of these results provides a measure of heterogeneity at various scales, an estimate of the size of the representative volume element and most importantly an identification of the deformation mechanisms, namely crystal slip plasticity (CSP) and grain boundary sliding (GBS) which are shown to be in a complex local interaction. The applied macroscopic loadings give rise locally to complex stress states owing to relative crystallographic orientations, density and orientation of interfaces, local deformation history. We have quantitatively estimated the relative importance of CSP and GBS for different microstructures and evidenced a marked grain size effect. We have also done some finite element simulations based on crystal plasticity which are in good agreement with the experimental results in terms of identification of active slip systems. Finally some 3D experimental developments using Xray tomography and preliminary results are shown.Il existe un renouveau d'intérêt pour la rhéologie du sel gemme car les cavités salines sont des sites intéressants pour l'enfouissement de déchet ou le stockage d'énergie. Ces nouvelles recherches bénéficient du développement des techniques d'observation à petite échelle qui permettent une caractérisation précise des microstructures, des mécanismes de déformation et des champs de déformation. Une procédure pour fabriquer des échantillons de sel synthétiques ayant différentes tailles de grains, a été mise au point. Des essais macroscopiques ont été réalisés pour comparer le comportement du matériau synthétique et naturel. Des tests de compressions uniaxiale ont été réalisés sur des presses classiques et avec une machine spécifique installée dans un microscope électronique à balayage. Les images numériques de la surface de l'échantillon ont été enregistrées à différentes étapes de chargement. Des marqueurs ont permis de mesurer les déplacements grâce à la corrélation d'images numériques. Les champs de déformation globaux et locaux ont ainsi été calculés. L'analyse de ces résultats donne une mesure de l'hétérogénéité à différentes échelles, une estimation de la taille de l'élément de volume représentatif et enfin une identification des mécanismes de déformation, c'est à dire, la plasticité intracristalline et le glissement aux interfaces que l'on constate être en interactions locales complexes. Les chargements macroscopiques donnent lieu à des champs de contraintes locaux complexes du fait de l'orientation cristalline, la densité et l'orientation des interfaces et l'histoire locale de la déformation. Nous avons donné une estimation quantitative de l'importance relative de ces deux mécanismes pour plusieurs microstructures et mis en évidence un un effet marqué de la taille de grains. Nous avons aussi réalisé des simulations par éléments finis basées sur la plasticité cristalline et trouvé un bon accord avec les résultats expérimentaux pour l'identification des systèmes de glissement. Enfin, des développements expérimentaux 3D utilisant la tomographie aux rayons X sont montrés avec des résultats préliminaires

Étude multi-échelle des mécanismes de déformation ductile de polycristaux synthétiques de chlorure de sodium.

There is a renewed interest in the study of the rheology of halite since salt cavities are considered for waste repositories or energy storage. This research benefits from the development of observation techniques at the micro-scale which allow precise characterizations of microstructures, deformation mechanisms and strain fields. A procedure to make synthetic halite samples of different grains sizes has been devised. Macroscopic tests have been made to compare the behavior of synthetic samples with the one of natural salt. Uniaxial compression tests have been performed with a conventional press and with a specific rig fitted inside a scanning electron microscope. Digital images of the surface of the sample have been recorded at several loading stages. Surface markers allow the measure of displacements by means of Digital Image Correlation (DIC) techniques. Global and local strain fields are then computed using DIC and ad hoc data processing. Analysis of these results provides a measure of heterogeneity at various scales, an estimate of the size of the representative volume element and most importantly an identification of the deformation mechanisms, namely crystal slip plasticity (CSP) and grain boundary sliding (GBS) which are shown to be in a complex local interaction. The applied macroscopic loadings give rise locally to complex stress states owing to relative crystallographic orientations, density and orientation of interfaces, local deformation history. We have quantitatively estimated the relative importance of CSP and GBS for different microstructures and evidenced a marked grain size effect. We have also done some finite element simulations based on crystal plasticity which are in good agreement with the experimental results in terms of identification of active slip systems. Finally some 3D experimental developments using Xray tomography and preliminary results are shown.Il existe un renouveau d'intérêt pour la rhéologie du sel gemme car les cavités salines sont des sites intéressants pour l'enfouissement de déchet ou le stockage d'énergie. Ces nouvelles recherches bénéficient du développement des techniques d'observation à petite échelle qui permettent une caractérisation précise des microstructures, des mécanismes de déformation et des champs de déformation. Une procédure pour fabriquer des échantillons de sel synthétiques ayant différentes tailles de grains, a été mise au point. Des essais macroscopiques ont été réalisés pour comparer le comportement du matériau synthétique et naturel. Des tests de compressions uniaxiale ont été réalisés sur des presses classiques et avec une machine spécifique installée dans un microscope électronique à balayage. Les images numériques de la surface de l'échantillon ont été enregistrées à différentes étapes de chargement. Des marqueurs ont permis de mesurer les déplacements grâce à la corrélation d'images numériques. Les champs de déformation globaux et locaux ont ainsi été calculés. L'analyse de ces résultats donne une mesure de l'hétérogénéité à différentes échelles, une estimation de la taille de l'élément de volume représentatif et enfin une identification des mécanismes de déformation, c'est à dire, la plasticité intracristalline et le glissement aux interfaces que l'on constate être en interactions locales complexes. Les chargements macroscopiques donnent lieu à des champs de contraintes locaux complexes du fait de l'orientation cristalline, la densité et l'orientation des interfaces et l'histoire locale de la déformation. Nous avons donné une estimation quantitative de l'importance relative de ces deux mécanismes pour plusieurs microstructures et mis en évidence un un effet marqué de la taille de grains. Nous avons aussi réalisé des simulations par éléments finis basées sur la plasticité cristalline et trouvé un bon accord avec les résultats expérimentaux pour l'identification des systèmes de glissement. Enfin, des développements expérimentaux 3D utilisant la tomographie aux rayons X sont montrés avec des résultats préliminaires

Microchirurgie robotisée en ophtalmologie

STRASBOURG-Medecine (674822101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Multi-scale viscoplastic behaviour of Halite: In-situ SEM full field measurements, a micro-mechanical approach

Halite geological formations are already extensively used for underground storage of hydrocarbons. For example, the entire USA federal reserve of petrol resides in deep (500 - 1000 m) artificial salt caverns, which are realized by controlled dissolution. In France, many such salt caverns are used for storage of natural gas by GDF. Salt caverns and carries are also intended to become nuclear waste repositories. At this point, salt caverns are also seriously envisaged for the daily storage of energy from renewable, but intermittent sources (photovoltaic, Aeolian), under the form of compressed air. Halite mechanical behaviour was extensively studied for the purpose of safe geothechnical applications. Halite is a ductile type rock. Its differed (time-dependent) mechanical response dominates by far, and therefore deep salt caverns experience convergence (closure), which may result in catastrophic subsidence of the overlaying geological layers. Hence, a particular attention was drawn to characterize salt single crystal creep properties (active slip systems and critical resolved shear stresses), and the rheology of poly-crystalline salt, at various temperatures, pressures, differential stresses and water contents (Ter Heege et al., 2007). But, most studies were concerned with macroscopically derived flow laws, corresponding to rather high differential stresses (as compared with those experienced on site), where crystal slip plasticity (CSP) dominates. But, many studies have also shown that halite is very sensitive to solution-precipitation creep (SPC) mechanisms, which may result in solution transfer accommodated grain boundary sliding (GBS). Conversely, some recent studies report that halite is able to flow at ambient conditions, and under very small loads, with strain rates much faster (four orders of magnitude) than those extrapolated from high stress experiments (Bérest et al., 2005). Though, the specific creep micro-mechanisms were not identified, Bérest et al. (2005) invoked possible SPC. Additionally, the effects on long term behaviour of cyclic loading (fatigue) are still poorly known. It is therefore still questionable weather it is really possible to safely extrapolate the laboratory data to the long term envisaged geotechnical applications. To answer we need i) additional experimental work in order to up date the deformation mechanism maps on the basis of better identified micro-physical mechanisms and quantification of their respective activity; and ii) numerical modelling at the scales of the material, and of the underground storage structures, in respect with the appropriated thermo-hygro-mechaniclal loadings. In the present work, we present our preliminary investigation of viscoplastic global and local responses of synthetic fine grained (50 - 500 m) halite by the means of full field measurements (FFM) of local strain by digital image correlation (DIC) during simple compression in-situ SEM (Doumalain et al., 2003). Figure 1 shows a typical loading curve obtained incrementally at the constant strain rate of c.a. 5x10-5 s-1. CSP evidenced by the development of slip lines on the free grain surfaces, and characterized by quasi-linear strain hardening, dominates the overall response up to several % of strain (microfracturing did not appear before 8 % strain). Yet, at the scale of the microstructure, the development of viscoplastic strain is heterogeneous, as shown by the strain maps obtained by DIC and corresponding to four incremental stages of the loading sequence. The heterogeneity of the strain field relates to the loading boundary conditions and to the local microstructure, such crystal size and orientation (which is characterized by electron back scattering diffraction, EBSD). Such micromechanical approach aims to provide the basis for the development of FE (finite element) computational CSP of polycrystalline halite

Deformation mechanisms in synthetic halite samples : observations and full field measurements in a scanning electron microscope and comparison with crystalline plasticity computations

Halite is an important analog material as well as a geological material of choice for underground storage cavities. We present the initial part of an extensive study which aims at characterizing the deformation mechanisms of halite with surface and volume observations and to model them with special attention to the mechanisms of grain boundary sliding which complements or acts in parallel with the more classic crystalline plasticity. In this first part, we limit ourselves to surface observations of samples of synthetic halite deformed in uniaxial compression inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The sample are prepared by HIP (Hot Isostactic Pressure) and after annealing, a rather homogeneous and compact structure is achieved with grain sizes ranging from 250 to 500 micrometers. Digital image correlation (DIC) is used in order to record the local deformation and compute the components of the strain tensor. Electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD) provides the local crystal orientations (local textures) at an initial stage and intermediate steps of the mechanical test. Traces of slip planes and DIC computed local strains are markers of intra-crystalline plasticity but also for the latter of potential grain boundary sliding. The first computations use a 3D finite element scheme, which considers a few grains of known geometry and orientation. Applying proper boundary conditions to reproduce the local ones, one computes through a crystal plasticity based model which slip systems are active and how do the different parts of the grains reorient themselves. Comparisons are made between experimental data et computations in order to test the validity of the model. First attempts are made to account for grain boundary sliding in the computations. Computations are an important complement to experiments, since they can provide estimates of local stress magnitudes, while the experiments are limited to the kinematics of the deformation. In the next stage of the project, we shall attempt to integrate 3D experimental data into our approach and to have a better physically based model of grain boundary sliding