Person

Michael Heap

This person is no longer with EPFL

Related publications (13)

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

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

Reactivating sealed joints: rock strength reduction and permeability enhancement … sometimes

Alexandra Roma Larisa Kushnir, Michael Heap

Rock masses are often criss-crossed by generations of discontinuities, including veins, fractures, and joints. The presence of fractures and joints can increase rock mass permeability and decrease rock mass strength. However, fluid flow within rock masses ...

2023

To break or not to break: The role of secondary mineralisation on joint reactivation in sandstone

Alexandra Roma Larisa Kushnir, Michael Heap

Discontinuities, including fractures and joint sets, modify the fluid transport properties and strength of rock masses. While open fractures and joints increase rock mass permeability and decrease rock mass strength, fluid flow within these structures can ...

2023

, , ,

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 ...

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION2022

Enrichment of immobile elements in synmagmatic fractures

Alexandra Roma Larisa Kushnir, Michael Heap

Useful minerals containing rare Earth elements (REE) and metals are sourced from magma bodies, but exactly how these elements initially leave the magma is not well known. Here we present textural and chemical analyses of mineral-filled fracture bands withi ...

2022

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

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