A natural analogue of high pH cement pore waters from the Maqarin area of northern Jordan. I: introduction to the site.

The highly alkaline springs of the Maqarin area of northern Jordan are currently under examination as part of an international project testing the models used to analyse the safety of repositories for low and intermediate level radioactive waste (L/ILW). The Maqarin area contains a rock-groundwater system which is an ideal natural analogue of a concrete-filled L/ILW repository emplaced in a sedimentary host rock. The high pH (12.5) groundwaters at this site are the product of interaction with naturally occurring cement minerals and not of the alteration of ultramafic minerals. Stable isotope data for the hyperalkaline groundwaters lie below both the local meteoric water line and the eastern Mediterranean water line. At least part of the shift appears to be the result of groundwater interaction with the cement minerals. This paper introduces the site of the natural analogue study and, in presenting novel data on the chemistry and stable isotopic signature of the groundwater, provides background information which is used in a companion paper (Alexander et al., 1992) on testing the predictive capabilities of geochemical thermodynamic codes (and their associated databases) which will be utilised as part of the safety assessment of a L/ILW repository

Evidence that release of internal stress contributes to drying strains of wood

International audienceWood shrinks during drying with the departure of bond water. Along the fibre direction, the magnitude of this shrinkage is mainly governed by the orientation of cellulose microfibrils (MF) in the cell wall. However, tension wood has an unexpectedly high longitudinal shrinkage considering the fact that MFs are oriented nearly parallel to the cell direction. This effect is thought to be due to the gel collapse of G-layer, however, some species producing a tension wood without G-layer also exhibit a higher longitudinal shrinkage than normal wood. The aim of this study is to analyse the contribution of maturation stresses to drying shrinkage. Longitudinal and tangential drying shrinkage of tension wood and normal wood were measured on two sets of matched chestnut wood samples. The first set was directly ovendried, whereas on the second set a hygrothermal treatment released the maturation stress before oven-drying. The analysis of the strains during each step of the procedure reveals that part of the drying shrinkage is due to the release of internal stresses during the desorption process. Finally, a tentative schematic model is proposed taking into account the cumulative contributions to longitudinal drying shrinkage