Effect of fatigue loading-confining stress unloading rate on marble mechanical behaviors: An insight into fracture evolution analyses

Rocks in underground works usually experience rather complex stress disturbance.For this,their fracture mechanism is significantly different from rocks subjected to conventional triaxial compression conditions.The effects of stress disturbances on rock geomechanical behaviors under fatigue loading conditions and triaxial unloading conditions have been reported in previous studies.However,little is known about the dependence of the unloading rate on fatigue loading and confining stress unloading(FL-CSU)conditions that influence rock failure.In this paper,we aimed at investigating the fracture behaviors of marble under FL-CSU conditions using the post-test X-ray computed tomography(CT)scanning technique and the GCTS RTR 2000 rock mechanics system.Results show that damage accumulation at the fatigue stage can influence the final fracture behaviors of marble.The stored elastic energy for rock samples under FL-CSU tests is relatively larger compared to those under conventional triaxial tests,and the dissipated energy used to drive damage evolution and crack propagation is larger for FL-CSU tests.In FL-CSU tests,as the unloading rate increases,the dissipated energy grows and elastic energy reduces.CT scanning after the test reveals the impacts of the unloading rate on the crack pattern and a fracture degree index is therein defined in this context to represent the crack dimension.It shows that the crack pattern after FL-CSU tests depends on the unloading rate,and the fracture degree is in agreement with the analysis of both the energy dissipation and the amount of energy released.The effect of unloading rate on fracture evolution characteristics of marble is revealed by a series of FL-CSU tests.

Influence of confining stress on fracture characteristics and cutting efficiency of TBM cutters conducted on soft and hard rock

Combined with numerical simulation, the influence of confining stress on cutting process, fracture conditions and cutting efficiencies of soft and hard rock has been conducted on the triaxial testing machine(TRW-3000) designed and manufactured in Central South University(China). Results are obtained by performing analysis on the fracture scopes of cement and granite plates,the characteristics of cutting force in cutting processes and the cutting efficiency. Firstly, the increase of latitude fracture scope and the decrease of longitude fracture scope are both more notable in the tests conducted on cement plates subjected to the increasing confining stresses; secondly, the increase tendency of peak penetration forces obtained from tests conducted on granite plates is more obvious, however, the increase tendencies of average penetration forces achieved from cement and granite plates are close to each other; thirdly, the cutting efficiency could be improved by increasing the spacing between cutters when the confining stress which acts on soft and hard rock increases in a certain degree, and the cutting efficiency of soft rock is more sensitive to the varying confining stresses.

An analytical solution of equivalent elastic modulus considering confining stress and its variables sensitivity analysis for fractured rock masses

The equivalent elastic modulus is a parameter for controlling the deformation behavior of fractured rock masses in the equivalent continuum approach.The confining stress,whose effect on the equivalent elastic modulus is of great importance,is the fundamental stress environment of natural rock masses.This paper employs an analytical approach to obtain the equivalent elastic modulus of fractured rock masses containing random discrete fractures(RDFs)or regular fracture sets(RFSs)while considering the confining stress.The proposed analytical solution considers not only the elastic properties of the intact rocks and fractures,but also the geometrical structure of the fractures and the confining stress.The performance of the analytical solution is verified by comparing it with the results of numerical tests obtained using the three-dimensional distinct element code(3DEC),leading to a reasonably good agreement.The analytical solution quantitatively demonstrates that the equivalent elastic modulus increases substantially with an increase in confining stress,i.e.it is characterized by stress-dependency.Further,a sensitivity analysis of the variables in the analytical solution is conducted using a global sensitivity analysis approach,i.e.the extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test(EFAST).The variations in the sensitivity indices for different ranges and distribution types of the variables are investigated.The results provide an in-depth understanding of the influence of the variables on the equivalent elastic modulus from different perspectives.