Mechanical response and microscopic damage mechanism of pre-flawed sandstone subjected to monotonic and multilevel cyclic loading:A laboratory-scale investigation

This study aims to investigate the mechanical response and acoustic emission(AE)characteristic of pre-flawed sandstone under both monotonic and multilevel constant-amplitude cyclic loads.Specifically,we explored how coplanar flaw angle and load type impact the strength and deformation behavior and microscopic damage mechanism.Results indicated that being fluctuated before rising with increasing fissure angle under monotonic loading,the peak strength of the specimen first increased slowly and then steeply under cyclic loading.The effect of multilevel cyclic loading on the mechanical parameters was more significant.For a single fatigue stage,the specimen underwent greater deformation in early cycles,which subsequently stabilized.Similar variation pattern was also reflected by AE count/energy/b-value.Crack behaviors were dominated by the fissure angle and load type and medium-scale crack accounted for 74.83%–86.44%of total crack.Compared with monotonic loading,crack distribution of specimen under cyclic loading was more complicated.Meanwhile,a simple model was proposed to describe the damage evolution of sandstone under cyclic loading.Finally,SEM images revealed that the microstructures at the fracture were mainly composed of intergranular fracture,and percentage of transgranular fracture jumped under cyclic loading due to the rapid release of elastic energy caused by high loading rate.

Long-term settlement prediction of high-speed railway bridge pile foundation

The process and characteristics of loading on high-speed railway bridge pile foundation were firstly obtained by means of field research and analysis,and the corresponding loading function was presented.One-dimensional consolidation equation of elastic multilayered soils was then established with single drainage or double drainages under multilevel loading.Moreover,the formulas for calculating effective stress and settlement were derived from the Laplace numerical inversion transform.The three-dimensional composite analysis method of bridge pile group was improved,where the actual load conditions of pile foundation could be simulated,and the consolidation characteristics of soil layers beneath pile were also taken into account.Eventually,a corresponding program named LTPGS was developed to improve the calculation efficiency.The comparison between long-term settlement obtained from the proposed method and the in-situ measurements of pile foundation was illustrated,and a close agreement is obtained.The error between computed and measured results is less than 1 mm,and it gradually reduces with time.It is shown that the proposed method can effectively simulate the long-term settlement of pile foundation and program LTPGS can provide a reliable estimation.