Effect of fractures on mechanical behavior of sand powder 3D printing rock analogue under triaxial compression

In practical engineering applications,rock mass are often found to be subjected to a triaxial stress state.Concurrently,defects like joints and fractures have a notable impact on the mechanical behavior of rock mass.Such defects are identified as crucial contributors to the failure and instability of the surrounding rock,subsequently impacting the engineering stability.The study aimed to investigate the impact of fracture geometry and confining pressure on the deformation,failure characteristics,and strength of specimens using sand powder 3D printing technology and conventional triaxial compression tests.The results indicate that the number of fractures present considerably influences the peak strength,axial peak strain and elastic modulus of the specimens.Confining pressure is an important factor affecting the failure pattern of the specimen,under which the specimen is more prone to shear failure,but the initiation,expansion and penetration processes of secondary cracks in different fracture specimens are different.This study confirmed the feasibility of using sand powder 3D printing specimens as soft rock analogs for triaxial compression research.The insights from this research are deemed essential for a deeper understanding of the mechanical behavior of fractured surrounding rocks when under triaxial stress state.

Experimental and numerical study on dynamic mechanical behaviors of shale under true triaxial compression at high strain rate

High-energy gas fracturing of shale is a novel,high efficacy and eco-friendly mining technique,which is a typical dynamic perturbing behavior.To effectively extract shale gas,it is important to understand the dynamic mechanical properties of shale.Dynamic experiments on shale subjected to true triaxial compression at different strain rates are first conducted in this research.The dynamic stress-strain curves,peak strain,peak stress and failure modes of shale are investigated.The results of the study indicate that the intermediate principal stress and the minor principal stress have the significant influence on the dynamic mechanical behaviors,although this effect decreases as the strain rate increases.The characteristics of compression-shear failure primarily occur in shale subjected to triaxial compression at high strain rates,which distinguishes it from the fragmentation characteristics observed in shale under dynamic uniaxial compression.Additionally,a numerical three-dimensional Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar(3D-SHPB),which is established by coupling PFC3D and FLAC3D methods,is validated to replicate the laboratory characteristics of shale.The dynamic mechanical characteristics of shale subjected to different confining stresses are systematically investigated by the coupling PFC3D and FLAC3D method.The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data.

Anisotropic strength,deformation and failure of gneiss granite under high stress and temperature coupled true triaxial compression

The anisotropic mechanical behavior of rocks under high-stress and high-temperature coupled conditions is crucial for analyzing the stability of surrounding rocks in deep underground engineering.This paper is devoted to studying the anisotropic strength,deformation and failure behavior of gneiss granite from the deep boreholes of a railway tunnel that suffers from high tectonic stress and ground temperature in the eastern tectonic knot in the Tibet Plateau.High-temperature true triaxial compression tests are performed on the samples using a self-developed testing device with five different loading directions and three temperature values that are representative of the geological conditions of the deep underground tunnels in the region.Effect of temperature and loading direction on the strength,elastic modulus,Poisson’s ratio,and failure mode are analyzed.The method for quantitative identification of anisotropic failure is also proposed.The anisotropic mechanical behaviors of the gneiss granite are very sensitive to the changes in loading direction and temperature under true triaxial compression,and the high temperature seems to weaken the inherent anisotropy and stress-induced deformation anisotropy.The strength and deformation show obvious thermal degradation at 200℃due to the weakening of friction between failure surfaces and the transition of the failure pattern in rock grains.In the range of 25℃ 200℃,the failure is mainly governed by the loading direction due to the inherent anisotropy.This study is helpful to the in-depth understanding of the thermal-mechanical behavior of anisotropic rocks in deep underground projects.

Numerical investigation of the mechanical behavior of the backfill–rock composite structure under triaxial compression

To ensure safe and economical backfill mining,the mechanical response of the backfill–rock interaction system needs to be understood.The numerical investigation of the mechanical behavior of backfill–rock composite structure(BRCS)under triaxial compression,which includes deformation,failure patterns,strength characteristics,and acoustic emission(AE)evolution,was proposed.The models used in the tests have one rough interface,two cement–iron tailings ratios(CTRs),four interface angles(IAs),and three confining pressures(CPs).Results showed that the deformation,strength characteristics,and failure patterns of BRCS under triaxial compression depend on IA,CP,and CTR.The stress–strain curves of BRCS under triaxial compression could be divided into five stages,namely,compaction,elasticity,yield,strain softening,and residual stress.The relevant AE counts have corresponding relationships with different stages.The triaxial compressive strengths of composites increase linearly with the increase of the CP.Furthermore,the CP stress strengthening effect occurs.When the IAs are45°and 60°,the failure areas of composites appear in the interface and backfill.When the IAs are 75°and 90°,the failure areas of composites appear in the backfill,interface,and rock.Moreover,the corresponding failure modes yield the combined shear failure.The research results provide the basis for further understanding of the stability of the BRCS.

Experimental investigation on crack initiation and damage stresses of deep granite under triaxial compression using acoustic methods

Crack initiation stress and crack damage stress are two critical indices for assessing the fracture strength of rock mass.However,understanding the stress characteristics of crack initiation and damage under triaxial compression remains still immature.To address this problem,by acoustic monitoring,i.e.ultrasonic wave transmission and acoustic emission(AE),the integrated triaxial compression experiments were carried out on granitic specimens.The crack initiation and damage stresses were determined by wave velocity,wave amplitude and AE methods,respectively.The discrepancy of stresses for crack initiation and damage identified by these methods were examined.Results showed that the confinement affected the peak stress and corresponding strain,and these two parameters increased with increasing confining pressure.The ultrasonic wave velocity and wave amplitude first increased and then remained relatively stable,and finally decreased with increasing axial compressive stress.The number of AE events stayed at a relatively low extent until axial stress approached the peak;after that,the AE accumulative counts skyrocketed to the maximum.It also shows that for a given confinement,the stresses for crack initiation and damage identified by the wave amplitude method were the smallest,followed those by AE method and wave velocity method.Moreover,the stresses for crack initiation and crack damage identified by these methods increased generally with confining pressures.However,the rate of increment of these two crack stresses decreased with increasing confining pressure.In addition,the slight decrease in these two crack stresses ratios was noticed with increasing confining pressure.The findings are helpful to understand the crack stresses of deep rocks,in terms of support of deep underground engineering.

Effect of Freeze-Thaw Cycles on Mechanical Properties and Permeability of Red Sandstone under Triaxial Compression

Geological disasters will happen in cold regions because of the effects of freeze-thaw cycles on rocks or soils, so studying the effects of these cycles on the mechanical characteristics and permeability properties of rocks is very important. In this study, red sandstone samples were frozen and thawed with o, 4, 8 and 12 cycles, each cycle including 12 h of freezing and 12 h of thawing. The P-wave velocities of these samples were measured, and the mechanical properties and evolution of the steady-state permeabilities were investigated in a series of uniaxial and triaxial compression tests. Experimental results show that, with the increasing of cyclic freeze-thaw times, the P-wave velocity of the red sandstone decreases. The number of freeze-thaw cycles has a significant influence on the uniaxial compressive strength, elastic modulus, cohesion, and angle of internal friction. The evolution of permeability of the rock samples after cycles of freeze-thaw in a complete stress-strain process under triaxial compression is closely related to the variation of the microstructure in the rock. There is a highly corresponding relationship between volumetric strain and permeability with axial strain in all stages of the stress-strain behaviour.

Stress-strain behavior of plastic concrete using monotonic triaxial compression tests

The mechanical behavior of plastic concrete used in the cut-off walls of earth dams has been studied. Triaxial compression tests on the specimens in various ages and mix designs under different confining pressures have been done and the stress-strain behavior of such materials and their strength parameter changes have been experimentally investigated. It has been observed that increasing the confining pressures applied on the specimens causes the material behavior to be alike the more ductile materials and the compressive strength increases considerably as well. Moreover, a parametric study has been carded out to investigate the influence of essential parameters on the shear strength parameters of these materials. According to the research, increasing the coarse to fine aggregates ratio leads to the increase of compressive strength of the specimens as well as the increase of the cohesion and internal friction angle of the materials. Furthermore, the bentonite content decrease and the cement factor increase result in an increase of the cohesion parameter of plastic concretes and decrease of the internal friction angle of such materials.

Experimental and numerical study of coal-rock bimaterial composite bodies under triaxial compression

To accurately predict coal burst hazards and estimate the failure of coal pillars in underground coal mining systems,it is of great significance to understand the mechanical behavior of coal-rock bimaterial composite structures.This paper presents experimental and numerical investigations on the response of rock-coal,coal-rock,and rock-coal-rock bimaterial composite structures under triaxial compression.The triaxial compression experiments are conducted under confining pressures in the range of 0-20 MPa.The resulting inside fracture networks are detected using X-ray-based computed tomography(CT).The experimentally observed data indicate that the mechanical parameters of the rock-coalrock composites are superior to those of the rock-coal and coal-rock combinations.After compression failure,the coal-rock combination specimens are analyzed via X-ray CT.The results display that the failure of the coal-rock composite bodies primarily takes place within the coal.Further,the bursting proneness is reduced by increasing confining pressure.Subsequently,the corresponding numerical simulations of the experiments are carried out by using the particle flow code.The numerical results reveal that coal is vulnerable with regard to energy storage and accumulation.

Strength and deformation behaviors of veined marble specimens after vacuum heat treatment under conventional triaxial compression

The mechanical behaviors of rocks affected by high temperature and stress are generally believed to be significant for the stability of certain projects involving rocks, such as nuclear waste storage and geothermal resource exploitation. In this paper, veined marble specimens were treated to high temperature treatment and then used in conventional triaxial compression tests to investigate the effect of temperature, confining pressure, and vein angle on strength and deformation behaviors. The results show that the strength and deformation parameters of the veined marble specimens changed with the temperature, presenting a critical temperature of 600 . The triaxial compression strength of a horizontal vein () is obviously larger than that of a vertical vein (). The triaxial compression strength, elasticity modulus, and secant modulus have an approximately linear relation to the confining pressure. Finally, Mohr-Coulomb and Hoek-Brown criteria were respectively used to analyze the effect of confining pressure on triaxial compression strength.

Particle breakage evolution of coral sand using triaxial compression tests

Particle breakage continuously changes the grading of granular materials and has a significant effect on their mechanical behaviors.Revealing the evolution pattern of particle breakage is valuable for development and validation of constitutive models for crushable materials.A series of parallel triaxial compression tests along the same loading paths but stopped at different axial strains were conducted on two coral sands with different particle sizes under drained and undrained conditions.The tested specimens were carefully sieved to investigate the intermediate accumulation of particle breakage during the loading process.The test results showed that under both drained and undrained conditions,particle breakage increases continuously with increasing axial strain but exhibits different accumulating patterns,and higher confining pressures lead to greater particle breakage.Based on the test results,the correlations between particle breakage and the stress state as well as the input energy were examined.The results demonstrated that either the stress state or input energy alone is inadequate for describing the intermediate process of particle breakage evolution.Then,based on experimental observation,a path-dependent model was proposed for particle breakage evolution,which was formulated in an incremental form and reasonably considers the effects of the past breakage history and current stress state on the breakage rate.The path-dependent model successfully reproduced the development of particle breakage during undrained triaxial compression using the parameters calibrated from the drained tests,preliminarily demonstrating its effectiveness for different stress paths.

Triaxial compression strength for artificial frozen clay with thermal gradient

A series of triaxial compression tests for frozen clay were performed by KoDCGF （freezing with non-uniform temperature under loading after K0 consolidation） method and GFC （freezing with non-uniform temperature without experiencing Ko consolidation） method at various confining pressures and thermal gradients. The experimental results indicate that the triaxial compression strength for frozen clay in KoDCGF test increases with the increase of confining pressure, but it decreases as the confining pressure increases further in GFC test. In other words, the compression strength for frozen clay with identical confining pressure decreases with the increase in thermal gradient both in KoDCGF test and GFC test. The strength of frozen clay in KoDCGF test is dependent of pore ice strength, soil particle strength and interaction between soil skeleton and pore ice. The decrease of water content and distance between soil particles leads to the decrease of pore size and the increase of contact area between particles in KoDCGF test, which further results in a higher compression strength than that in GFC test. The compression strength for frozen clay with thermal gradient can be descried by strength for frozen clay with a uniform temperature identical to the temperature at the height of specimen where the maximum tensile stress appears.

Temperature-controlled triaxial compression/creep test device for thermodynamic properties of soft sedimentary rock and corresponding theoretical prediction

In deep geological disposal of high-level nuclear waste,one of the most important subjects is to estimate long-term stability and strength of host rock under high temperature conditions caused by radioactive decay of the waste.In this paper,some experimental researches on the thermo-mechanical characteristics of soft sedimentary rock have been presented.For this reason,a new temperature-controlled triaxial compression and creep test device,operated automatically by a computer-controlled system,whose control software has been developed by the authors,was developed to conduct the thermo-mechanical tests in different thermal loading paths,including an isothermal path.The new device is proved to be able to conduct typical thermo-mechanical element tests for soft rock.The test device and the related testing method were introduced in detail.Finally,some test results have been simulated with a thermo-elasto-viscoplastic model that was also developed by the authors.

Triaxial compression behavior of large-scale jointed coal: a numerical study

Accurate estimation of the triaxial compression behavior of jointed coal is essential for coal mining.Few studies addressed the triaxial compression behavior of large-scale rock mass,especially with real joint geometry.We employed a numerical synthetic rock mass(SRM)method to study the triaxial compression behavior of jointed coal.Jointed-coal specimens were constructed based on in-situ joint measurements and microparameter calibration against laboratory experiments.A series of triaxial compression tests under different loading orientations and confining pressures were numerically performed to obtain joint and confining-pressure effects on the triaxial compression behavior and reveal the failure mechanism of jointed coal.Results suggest that the triaxial compression behavior of the jointed coal has strong joint and confining-pressure effects.Joints weaken the strength and elastic modulus,reduce the lateral deformation,and affect the geometries of the shear-rupture surface.An increase in the confining pressure causes the peak and residual strength increase significantly.With an increase in the confining pressure,the elastic modulus increases sharply at low confining pressure,the mechanical behavior transitions from brittleness to ductility,the failure mode transitions from shear-rupture surface to plastic flow,and the joint effect diminishes and even disappears.The jointed coal fails by means of a shear-rupture surface under triaxial compression loading with a confining pressure(which is not too high),and the geometries of the shear-rupture surface vary with the distribution of joints.

Strength of Lightweight Concrete Under Triaxial Compression

The strength of lightweight concrete under triaxial compressive stress is studied experimentally with the concrete triaxial apparatus designed by the authors, and is compared with that of normal concrete under the same stress state. Ninety-five 100 mm cubes under twenty stress ratios are tested. As compared with normal concrete, it is found that not only the multiaxial compressive strength of lightweight concrete is small, but also the ratio of the multiaxial compressive strength to the uniaxial compressive strength is small. The influence of the intermediate principal stress on the multiaxial strength of lightweight concrete is discussed. The strength criteria which are expressed in the principal stresses and the octahedral stresses respectively are proposed.

Analyses of axial,lateral and circumferential deformations of rock specimen in triaxial compression

The axial,lateral and circumferential strains were analyzed for a rock specimen subjected to shear failure in the form of a shear band bisecting the specimen in triaxial compression.Plastic deformation of the specimen stemmed from shear strain localization initiated at the peak shear stress.Beyond the onset of strain localization,the axial,lateral and circumferential strains were decomposed into two parts,respectively.One is the elas- tic strain described by general Hooke's law.The other is attributable to the plastic shear slips along shear band with a certain thickness dependent on the internal length of rock. The post-peak circumferential strain-axial strain curve of longer specimen is steeper than that of shorter specimen,as is consistent with the previous experiments.In elastic stage, the circumferential strain-axial strain curve exhibits nonlinear characteristic,as is in agreement with the previous experiment since confining pressure is loaded progressively until a certain value is reached.When the confining pressure is loaded completely,the circumferential strain-axial strain curve is linear in elastic and strain-softening stages.The predicted circumferential strain-axial strain curve in elastic and strain-softening stages agrees with the previous experiment.

bStudy on constitutive relationship of coal based on conventional triaxial compression test

Constitutive relationship of coal under triaxial compression must be determined during solving the theoretical calculation and numerical simulation about coal body failure. This paper carried out conventional triaxial compression test on No.3 coal of Baodian Colliery using MTS815.03 servo-controlled rock mechanical test system. The results indicate that the failure process of coal can be divided into 5 stages： densification stage, apparent linear elastic deformation stage, accelerated inelastic deformation stage, fracture and developing stage and plasticity flow stage. Combined with the test results, the constitutive relationship model of coal can be simplified as the four segments of straight line model of elastic-plastic hardening-plastic softening-residual perfectly plastic. Through fitting calculation of test data, the segmented constitutive equation of coal can be obtained.

Strength and deformation behaviors of cemented tailings backfill under triaxial compression

It is of great significance for safety reason to obtain the triaxial compressive properties of cemented tailings backfill(CTB).The influence of cement content,curing age and confining pressure on strength and deformation properties of CTB was examined and discussed.Results indicate that the triaxial compressive and deformation behavior of CTB is strongly affected by the cement content,curing age and confining pressure.The increase in cement content,curing age and confining pressure leads to a change in stress−strain behavior and an increase in the axial strain at failure and post-peak strength loss.The cohesion of CTB rises as the curing age and cement content increase.However,the enhancement in internal friction angle is trivial and negligible.It should be noted that the failure pattern of CTB samples in triaxial compression is mainly along a shear plane,the confining pressure restrains the lateral expansion and the bulging failure pattern is dominantly detected in CTB samples as curing age length and cement content increase.The results will help to better understand the triaxial mechanical and deformation behavior of CTB.

A new nonlinear empirical strength criterion for rocks under conventional triaxial compression

The failure criterion of rocks is a critical factor involved in reliability design and stability analysis of geotechnical engineering.In order to accurately evaluate the triaxial compressive strength of rocks under different confining pressures,a nonlinear empirical strength criterion based on Mohr-Coulomb criterion was proposed in this paper.Through the analysis of triaxial test strength of 11 types of rock materials,the feasibility and validity of proposed criterion was discussed.For a further verification,six typical strength criteria were selected,and the prediction results of each criterion and test results were statistically analyzed.The comparative comparison results show that the prediction results obtained by applying this new criterion to 97 conventional triaxial compression tests of 11 different rock materials are highly consistent with the experimental data.Statistical analysis was executed to assess the application of the new criterion and other classical criteria in predicting the failure behavior of rock.This proposed empirical criterion provides a new reference and method for the determination of triaxial compressive strength of rock materials.

Evolution mechanism and quantitative characterization of initial micro-cracks in marble under triaxial compression

The initial micro-cracks affect the evolution characteristics of macroscopic deformation and failure of rock but are often ignored in theoretical calculation,numerical simulation,and mechanical experiments.In this study,we propose a quantitative analysis model to investigate the effects of initial micro-cracks on the evolution of marble deformation and failure.The relationship between the micro-crack propagation and the marble failure characteristics was comprehensively studied by combining theoretical analysis with a micro-computed tomography(micro-CT)scanning technique.We found that with the increase of confining pressure,the matrix elastic modulus of the marble first increased and then tended to be stable,while the micro-cracks increased exponentially.The sensitivity ranges of the marble sample matrix elastic modulus and micro-cracks to confining pressure were 0–30 MPa and 30–50 MPa,respectively.The porosity and Poisson’s ratio decreased exponentially.The increasing proportion of internal micro-cracks led to an increase in the sample non-uniformity.The samples presented mainly shear failure under triaxial compression,and the failure angle decreased linearly with the increase of confining pressure.The convergence direction of cracks decreased gradually.This quantitative analysis model could accurately portray the relationship between the overall macroscopic deformation and the deviatoric stress of the samples at the compaction and the linear elastic stages,thus deepening the understanding of the stress–strain behavior of rocks.

Deformation Damage and Energy Evolution of Basalt Fiber Reinforced Concrete under the Triaxial Compression

To explore the law of energy evolution and the change of damage before and after specimen failure,the conventional triaxial compression tests(5,10,15,20,and 30 MPa)of basalt fiber reinforced concrete(BFRC)with different fiber volume fractions(0,0.2%and 0.4%)were carried out by MTS816 rock testing system,and the cyclic loading and unloading tests of BFRC with a fiber content of 0.2%were carried out.The experimental results show that the peak strength and strain of BFRC increase with the increase of confining pressure.Tensile failure occurs under low confining pressure,and shear failure occurs under high confining pressure.The best volume fraction of fiber is 0.2%.Under different confining pressures,the input energy,elastic energy,plastic properties,and dissipated energy of the samples first increase and then decrease to a stable level.The elastic energy and dissipated energy reach the maximum near the peak stress,while the input energy and plastic properties reach the maximum at the peak.At the same time,the damage increases continuously with the input of load under different confining pressures,indicating that the failure of the specimen is a process of energy accumulation.