As part of BARIK, a laboratory programme is used to generate a dataset for anisotropic material to verify and validate the developed constitutive model. Based on Freiberger gneis, basic tests and multi-stage triaxial compression tests were conducted, the latter to investigate a post-failure region. Hydromechanical coupled triaxial compression tests to observe micromechanical damage processes are in progress. This contribution provides an overview of the laboratory programme and first results.

In the AREHS project, the effect of the alternation of cold and warm periods over 1 million years on the hydrogeological system in the vicinity of a repository was simulated. This was done with thermal–hydraulic–mechanical (–chemical) simulations. The simulations were implemented for generic 3D models for all three host rock formations: clay rock, salt rock and crystalline rock. In addition to the results for the generic sites, a workflow was developed that can be applied to concrete sites.

This contribution gives an overview of how the BARIK constitutive model was developed and tested. BARIK is an extended Hoek–Brown model for fractured crystalline rock that takes up to three fracture systems into account. It gives a numerical value to qualitative integrity criteria to show that the containment-providing rock zone in crystalline host rock is still intact. The BARIK model is a step forward in understanding and modeling the complex behavior of fractured crystalline hard rock.

In the framework of the Site Selection Act – StandAG, the geoscientific and planning requirements and criteria for the site selection for a repository for high-active nuclear waste are specified. This includes, among others, the modelling of hydrogeological scenarios such as how future cold and warm periods and associated glaciation events can change the (petro-)physical properties as well as the natural hydrogeological properties of the overall system which is the focus of the AREHS project.