Mr. Ronald Bianco

Research

The effects of introducing a country rock with variable permeability on fault gouge dynamics

Summary: Fluids contained in the pore spaces in a shearing granular media can drastically alter the overall stability of the system during repeated cycles of compaction and dilation. It is the goal of this research to try and gain a more detailed understanding of the spatial and temporal effects that country rock with variable permeability has on the fluid dynamics within the gouge layer of a fault zone. We will accomplish this through the addition of a cohesive country rock to a Discrete Element Method numerical model, which simulates the shearing of granular materials. With this addition we will be able to further study the effects of differing boundary conditions by controlling the ability of fluids to flow in and out of the granular layer, and the resulting strengthening/weakening of fault gouge material during stick-slip fault evolution.