On chemical degradation of properties of chalk

This paper is focused on the analysis of chemo-mechanical interaction in porous chalk and the resulting time-dependent behaviour. First, a constitutive relation is outlined for describing both the short and the long-term mechanical response in the presence of pore fluid. The approach is based on the chemo-plasticity framework developed in a recent work (Pietruszczak et al., 2006), whereby the properties of the material are assumed to be affected by the continuing intergranular pressure solution reaction. The performance of the framework is illustrated by some numerical examples that examine the evolution of mechanical characteristics of Lixhe chalk. © 2007 Taylor & Francis Group.