Publications by Lyesse Laloui | EPFL Graph Search

Hydro-mechanical insights for radioactive waste disposal from gas injection experiments in shale

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Qazim Llabjani

Disposal of radioactive waste in deep geological repositories relies on the integrity of geological barriers, where gas migration can compromise long-term safety. This study examines the hydro-mechanical response of a shale under varying gas pressure build ...

2025

Sealing Response of Pre-Fissured Opalinus Clay to CO₂ Injection

Lyesse Laloui, Eleni Stavropoulou

Fissures can have a significant impact on caprock integrity in the context of carbon capture and storage (CCS). In this campaign, the sealing capacity of a pre-fissured caprock material, the Opalinus Clay shale, is studied with real time x-ray imaging duri ...

Institute of Physics2025

Comparative Study of Gas Testing Protocols in Clayey Rocks for Nuclear Waste Repositories

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Qazim Llabjani

Understanding gas transport processes in clay barriers is crucial for assessing the long-term safety of geological repositories for radioactive waste. Fundamental and well-designed experimental research at the laboratory scale is an indispensable prerequis ...

EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD2025

Evaluating the geothermal potential of a metro station considering its airflow conditions

Lyesse Laloui, Elena Ravera, Sofie Elaine ten Bosch

This study examines the influence of the internal air environment on the geothermal potential of a metro station in Bucharest with a standard design commonly found in metro stations. It addresses the challenges posed by factors such as train movement on ai ...

2025

Impact of Water Saturation on the Anisotropic Elastic Moduli of a Gas Shale

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Jinwoo Kim

How water saturation affects elastic properties is particularly important for analyses of gas shales in unconventional reservoirs, but experimental data in defined partially saturated conditions are rare. We show that the elastic moduli of a gas shale vary ...

SPRINGER WIEN2025

Water retention behavior of a gas shale: Wettability-controlled water saturation and anisotropic hydromechanical response

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Jinwoo Kim

Gas shales are fine-grained, organic-rich sedimentary geomaterials with ultra-low permeability requiring hydraulic stimulation for gas extraction. Characterizing their water retention behavior is critical for predicting hydromechanical behavior and fluid f ...

2025

An engineering elastoplastic anisotropic model applied to the modelling of deep tunnelling in Opalinus Clay

Lyesse Laloui

This paper introduces the Enhanced Anisotropic Damage Plasticity (eADP) model, a novel engineering constitutive approach tailored for tunnel analyses in Opalinus Clay – the designated host rock for the Swiss radioactive waste repository. The model's key in ...

2025

Geomechanical characterization of a shale for site selection of a deep geological repository

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari

A large exploration campaign was executed for the final phase of the Swiss site selection program for a deep geological repository of radioactive waste. Nine boreholes were drilled, penetrating the 100 to 120 m thick Opalinus Clay shale host rock at depths ...

ARMA2025

A bio-chemo-hydro-mechanical model of transport, strength and deformation for bio-cementation applications

Lyesse Laloui, Dimitrios Terzis

Bio-cementation through microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) has the potential to overcome several technical and environmental limitations of conventional cement-based soil improvement techniques. While a significant amount of research has been ...

Springer Heidelberg2024

Performance of energy piles foundation in hot-dominated climate: A case study in Dubai

Lyesse Laloui, Elena Ravera, Sofie Elaine ten Bosch

Energy piles represent an innovative technology that can help provide sustainable geothermal heating or cooling energy for thermal conditioning purposes. In hot-dominated climates, the interest is to inject heat in the ground and extract energy for space-c ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Performance of complex energy geostructures

Lyesse Laloui, Alessandro Francesco Rotta Loria, Elena Ravera

2024

Mechanical behaviour of granular materials undergoing grain dissolution

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Taeheon Kim

Geotechnical engineering projects are often at risk from threats related to mineral dissolution and loss of particles that constitute the matrix of the geomaterial. Moreover, the impact of climate change can exacerbate these risks by accelerating the physi ...

Nature Research2024

Evolution of water content and suction of Opalinus Clay from recovery at the drilling site to handling in the laboratory

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Angelica Tuttolomondo

Advanced geotechnical engineering applications, such as shale gas extraction, CO2 geological sequestration, and geological radioactive waste storage, often involve various types of shales located at significant depths. Shales exhibit mechanical properties ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Insights from an extensive triaxial testing campaign on a shale for comparative site characterization of a deep geological repository

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Eleonora Crisci

Several boreholes were drilled for site comparison of a deep geological repository (DGR) in Northern Switzerland. The main target of the exploration program was the >100m thick Opalinus Clay, the designated host rock encountered at approximately 450 to 100 ...

Elsevier2024

Impact of CO2-rich seawater injection on the flow properties of basalts

Lyesse Laloui, Eleni Stavropoulou, Cesare Griner

Permanent CO storage in basalts through mineralisation offers a promising solution for reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change. This study focuses on the impact of potential mineralisation on the flow properties of the basaltic material. Fl ...

2024

Salinity-dependent ultimate shear strength of compacted Wyoming-type bentonite investigated by triaxial tests

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Jinwoo Kim

Ion composition in groundwater at the spent nuclear fuel repositories is a relevant uncertainty for predicting the shear behavior of the bentonite buffer. However, only a few studies investigated the range of shear strength variation with in-situ groundwat ...

Elsevier BV2024

Exploiting the renewable energy resources of our cities’ undergrounds

Lyesse Laloui

This paper focuses on innovative technologies that can efficiently and economically tap renewable energy from the urban underground: energy geostructures. These innovative technologies merge geotechnical engineering with energy efficiency, offering both st ...

CRC Press2024

A methodology to optimize complex models in the context of nuclear waste repositories

Lyesse Laloui, Matthias Timothee Stanislas Wojnarowicz

With the increase in computational capabilities in recent decades, the possibility of modeling complex phenomena has continued to grow, inevitably increasing the number of calibrated parameters. Determining these parameters for complex coupled models can b ...

2024

Influence of convection on the thermal storage performance of energy tunnels

Lyesse Laloui

The decarbonization of the built environment requires rapid growth in energy storage solutions due to the intermittent nature of most renewable energy sources. This paper focuses on the efficacy of so-called energy tunnels (i.e., tunnels equipped with pipe ...

2024

Assessing and exploiting the interaction between ventilation and geothermal systems in an underground data centre

Lyesse Laloui, Elena Ravera, Sofie Elaine ten Bosch

2024