Long-term modeling of alteration-transport coupling: Application to a fractured Roman glass

To improve confidence in glass alteration models, as used in nuclear and natural applications, their long-term predictive capacity has to be validated. For this purpose, we develop a new model that couples geochemical reactions with transport and use a fractured archaeological glass block that has been altered for 1800 years under well-constrained conditions in order to test the capacity of the model.The chemical model considers three steps in the alteration process: (1) formation of a hydrated glass by interdiffusion, whose kinetics are controlled by a pH and temperature dependent diffusion coefficient; (2) the dissolution of the hydrated glass, whose kinetics are based on an affinity law; (3) the precipitation of secondary phases if thermodynamic saturation is reached. All kinetic parameters were determined from experiments. The model was initially tested on alteration experiments in different solutions (pure water, Tris, seawater). It was then coupled with diffusive transport in solution to simulate alteration in cracks within the glass. Results of the simulations run over 1800 years are in good agreement with archaeological glass block observations concerning the nature of alteration products (hydrated glass, smectites, and carbonates) and crack alteration thicknesses. External cracks in direct contact with renewed seawater were altered at the forward dissolution rate and are filled with smectites (400−500 μm). Internal cracks are less altered (by 1 or 2 orders of magnitude) because of the strong coupling between alteration chemistry and transport. The initial crack aperture, the distance to the surface, and sealing by secondary phases account for these low alteration thicknesses. The agreement between simulations and observations thus validates the predictive capacity of this coupled geochemical model and increases more generally the robustness and confidence in glass alteration models to predict long-term behavior of nuclear waste in geological disposal or natural glass in the environment.