Publications de Alberto Minardi

Benchmark study of undrained triaxial testing of Opalinus Clay shale: Results and implications for robust testing

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi

Triaxial testing of argillaceous rocks and shales is significantly more challenging than conventional rock mechanical testing. The challenges are mainly related to the very low permeability of these geomaterials, and their sensitivity to exposure of atmosp ...

ELSEVIER2021

Experimental assessment of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of a shale caprock during CO2 injection

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi, Taeheon Kim, Eleni Stavropoulou

The presented experimental study focuses on the hydro-mechanical characterisation of a shale caprock (Opalinus Clay) in contact with carbon dioxide. The objective of this paper, consists in the evaluation of the material's sealing capacity in terms of entr ...

2021

Anisotropic behaviour of shallow opalinus clay

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi, Eleonora Crisci

Opalinus Clay shale, the selected host geomaterial of a high-level radioactive waste repository in Switzerland, was sourced at shallow depth in a borehole in the northern part of the country. Pairs of specimens, retrieved from the same depth were prepared ...

Springer Verlag2019

Thermo-mechanical schemes for energy piles

Lyesse Laloui, Alessandro Francesco Rotta Loria, Alberto Minardi

Currently, schemes based on seminal empirical knowledge about energy piles subjected to mechanical and thermal loads are available to describe the response of such foundations. However, schemes based on theoretical principles may more closely reflect the p ...

Springer Verlag2019

Experimental Assessment of the Impact of Partial Saturation On the Mechanical Properties of Gas Shales

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi

The impact of partial water saturation on the mechanical behaviour of clays and claystones has been widely proved. This work aims at demonstrating that also for gas shales partial water saturation has a significant influ-ence on their stiffness and strengt ...

2019

The impact of the volumetric swelling behavior on the water uptake of gas shale

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi

Water uptake of gas shales is commonly considered one of the most important factors responsible for fluid loss during flowback operations after hydraulic fracturing. Imbibition experiments cover a key role in this context to analyze the impact of several f ...

2018

Gas Shales Testing in Controlled Partially Saturated Conditions

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi

Laboratory measurement of mechanical properties of gas shales represents a challenging topic in geomechanics due to their peculiar features such as heterogeneity, anisotropy, low permeability, and complex physical phenomena related to the hydro-mechanical ...

2018

Laboratory testing of gas shales in unsaturated conditions

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi

Water uptake of gas shales is commonly considered one of the most important factors responsible for fluid loss during flowback operations after hydraulic fracturing. Imbibition experiments cover a key role in this context to analyze the impact of several f ...

2018

Nonlinear elastic response of partially saturated gas shales in uniaxial compression

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi

Elastic properties of gas shales are fundamental for the geomechanical characterization of unconventional reservoirs. Due to the presence of microcracks, a non-linear elastic behaviour with hysteresis is usually exhibited when gas shales are subjected to u ...

2018

Hydro-mechanical characterization of gas shales and Opalinus Clay shale in partially saturated conditions

Alberto Minardi

An experimental study on the behaviour of shales in partially water saturated conditions is presented in this thesis. The Opalinus Clay shale and gas shales from different unconventional reservoirs have been studied. Opalinus Clay is currently considered a ...

EPFL2018

Experimental assessment of shale properties for safe geological CO2 storage

Lyesse Laloui, Alberto Minardi

2018

Gas shale water imbibition tests with controlled suction technique

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi

Water loss during flowback operations represents one of the main challenges related to the use of hydraulic stimulation to exploit shale gas resources. About 20% of the injected fracturing fluids are usually recovered after stimulation. Fluid imbibition is ...

Springer verlag2018

Elastic behavior of partially saturated gas shales during unloading - reloading cycles in uniaxial compression

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi

Elastic properties of gas shales are of utmost importance for the exploitation of shale gas reservoirs. Static elastic properties are usually measured by performing unloading-reloading cycles in uniaxial or triaxial compressive tests. The response of gas s ...

2018

The Role of Anisotropy on the Volumetric Behaviour of Opalinus Clay upon Suction Change

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi, Eleonora Crisci

An experimental investigation to analyse the anisotropic volumetric response of shaly and sandy facies of Opalinus Clay upon suction variations is presented. Obtained results demonstrate the different behaviour of the tested facies to a wetting-drying cycl ...

Springer2017

Anisotropic volumetric behaviour of Opalinus Clay shale upon suction variation

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi, Eleonora Crisci

Opalinus Clay shale is under consideration to serve as the host geomaterial for the underground storage of nuclear waste in Switzerland. Water retention behaviour and anisotropic behaviour represent two main features of this geomaterial; however, a compreh ...

Ice Publishing2016

Anisotropic Volumetric Response of Shales upon Suction Changes

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Alberto Minardi

Anisotropic fabric and volumetric response to suction changes represent two main features of shales, which are involved in several engineering applications. However, a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between these two aspects is still missin ...

2016

Predicting the axial capacity of piles in sand

Jean-Marie Fuerbringer, Lyesse Laloui, Luis Felipe Orellana Espinoza, Alessandro Francesco Rotta Loria, Alberto Minardi

Currently, although several tools have been proposed for the numerical modelling of the pile-soil interface, there is not a well-established framework concerning the quantitative impact that different estimations of the mechanical properties of this settin ...

Elsevier2015