Publications by Michael Heap | EPFL Graph Search

An adaptive phase field approach to 3D internal crack growth in rocks

Alexandra Roma Larisa Kushnir, Tao Xu, Michael Heap

Modeling the 3D internal crack under compression entails complex fracture mechanics (mode I-II-III fracture), resulting in substantial computational costs and challenges in characterizing fracture morphology characterization for Phase Field Method (PFM) si ...

2024

The influence of water-saturation on the strength of volcanic rocks and the stability of lava domes

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Michael Heap

The rocks forming a volcanic edifice or dome are typically saturated or partially-saturated with water. However, most experiments aimed at better understanding the mechanical behaviour of volcanic rocks have been performed on dry samples, and therefore mos ...

2023

Fluid flow through microcracked and fractured granitic reservoirs

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Lucille Jocelyne Nadine Carbillet, Michael Heap

The permeability of crustal rocks and rock-masses dictates the efficiency of hydrothermal circulation and therefore the productivity of geothermal resources. In this study, we find by monitoring P-wave velocity that thermal microcracking in Lanhélin granit ...

2023

Reactivation of variably sealed joints and permeability enhancement in geothermal reservoir rocks

Alexandra Roma Larisa Kushnir, Michael Heap

Hydraulic stimulation of enhanced deep geothermal reservoirs commonly targets pre-existing joint networks with the goal of increasing reservoir permeability. Here, we study the permeability and strength of joint-free and jointed Buntsandstein sandstones fr ...

2023

The Permeability of Porous Volcanic Rock Through the Brittle-Ductile Transition

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Corentin Jean-Marie Rémi Noël, Gabriel Gérard Dominique Meyer, Michael Heap

The permeability of volcanic rock controls the distribution of pore fluids and pore fluid pressure within a volcanic edifice, and is therefore considered to influence eruptive style and volcano deformation. We measured the porosity and permeability of a po ...

2022

The Effects of Planetary and Stellar Parameters on Brittle Lithospheric Thickness

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Michael Heap

The thicknesss of the brittle lithosphere—the outer portion of a planetary body that fails via fracturing— plays a key role in the geological processes of that body. The properties of both a planet and its host star can influence that thickness, and the po ...

2021

Petrophysical properties of the Muschelkalk from the Soultz-sous-Forêts geothermal site (France), an important lithostratigraphic unit for geothermal exploitation in the Upper Rhine Graben

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Alexandra Roma Larisa Kushnir, Michael Heap

2019

From rock to magma and back again: The evolution of temperature and deformation mechanism in conduit margin zones

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Michael Heap

Explosive silicic volcanism is driven by gas overpressure in systems that are inefficient at outgassing. The zone at the margin of a volcanic conduit-thought to play an important role in the outgassing of magma and therefore pore pressure changes and explo ...

Elsevier2017

Porosity evolution at the brittle-ductile transition in the continental crust: Implications for deep hydro-geothermal circulation

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Mateo Alejandro Acosta, Michael Heap

Recently, projects have been proposed to engineer deep geothermal reservoirs in the ductile crust. To examine their feasibility, we performed high-temperature (up to 1000 degrees C), high-pressure (130 MPa) triaxial experiments on granite (initially-intact ...

Springer Nature2017

Modelling the time-dependent rheological behaviour of heterogeneous brittle rocks

Jian Zhao, Tao Xu, Michael Heap

A 2-D numerical model for brittle creep and stress relaxation is proposed for the time-dependent brittle deformation of heterogeneous brittle rock under uniaxial loading conditions. The model accounts for material heterogeneity through a stochastic local f ...

Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford2012