Deformation and damage properties of rock-like materials subjected to multi-level loading-unloading cycles

In the process of engineering construction such as tunnels and slopes,rock mass is frequently subjected to multiple levels of loading and unloading,while previous research ignores the impact of unloading rate on the stability of rock mass.A number of uniaxial multi-level cyclic loading-unloading experiments were conducted to better understand the effect of unloading rate on the deformation behavior,energy evolution,and damage properties of rock-like material.The experimental results demonstrated that the unloading rate and relative cyclic number clearly influence the deformation behavior and energy evo-lution of rock-like samples.In particular,as the relative cyclic number rises,the total strain and reversible strain both increase linearly,while the total energy density,elastic energy density,and dissipated energy density all rise nonlinearly.In contrast,the irreversible strain first decreases quickly,then stabilizes,and finally rises slowly.As the unloading rate increases,the total strain and reversible strain both increase,while the irreversible strain decreases.The dissipated energy damage was examined in light of the aforementioned experimental findings.The accuracy of the proposed damage model,which takes into account the impact of the unloading rate and relative cyclic number,is then confirmed by examining the consistency between the model predicted and the experimental results.The proposed damage model will make it easier to foresee how the multi-level loading-unloading cycles will affect the rock-like materials.

Compressive and Sealing Characteristics of PTFE under Cyclic Loading-unloading

Compressive and sealing characteristics of PTFE under cyclic loading-unloading at room temperature are studied in order to evaluate the cyclic sealing performance of control valve comprehensively. The unloading characteristics are different from the loading ones, therefore there is hysteresis between the unloading and loading curves. Compressive hysteresis is the main factor that causes sealing hysteresis. The leakage rate of PTFE complies with the power law before it enters the relatively stable region. Lastly, the effect of working pressure on the compressive and sealing characteristics is discussed. The experimental results show that the working pressure has little effect on compressive deformation but has a great influence on leakage rate.

Observations of loading-unloading process at Saturn's distant magnetotail

Using in-situ measurements from the Cassini spacecraft in 2013, we report an Earth substorm-like loading-unloading process at Saturn's distant magnetotail. We found that the loading process is featured with two distinct processes: a rapid loading process that was likely driven by an internal source and a slow loading process that was likely driven by solar wind. Each of the two loading processes could also individually lead to an unloading process. The rapid internal loading process lasts for ~ 1-2 hours; the solar wind driven loading process lasts for ~ 3-18 hours and the following unloading process lasts for ~1-3 hours. In this letter, we suggest three possible loadingunloading circulations, which are fundamental in understanding the role of solar wind in driving giant planetary magnetospheric dynamics.

Loading-unloading judgement for advanced plastic UH model

The unified hardening(UH)model proposed by Yao et al.(Geotechnique 2009)is the constitutive model which can consider the influence of the complex stress path and stress history on the deformation and strength of clays reasonably.Firstly,the loading-unloading criterion of material model is defined as the change law of the intersection of current yield surface and the p axis,which makes the loading-unloading in the process of hardening and softening can be unified considered in UH model.Then,the Newton-Raphson method is adopted to attain the nonlinear problems solution in the finite element method of UH model,and the semi-implicit return mapping method is adopted to update stress.The application of the UH model in the finite element is realized.And then,the analyses of triaxial test are performed using the unit prediction and finite element method.The results of the unit prediction method are compared with the experimental results to illustrate the rationality of the UH model.Comparing the results with the unit prediction method and the finite element method,the correctness of the finite element program of the UH model is iUusttated.Further,Ae three-dimensional firdte element andysis of embankment on soft soil is performed by the program.The comparison between the results calculated by the UH model and the modified Cam-clay(MCC)model and the experimental data shows that the UH model is rational in analyzing the actual embankment engineering on soft soil.

Dynamic characteristics of nanoindentation in Ni:A molecular dynamics simulation study

In this work, three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulation is carried out to elucidate the nanoindentation behaviour of single crystal Ni. The substrate indenter system is modelled using hybrid interatomic potentials including the manybody potential （embedded atom method） and two-body Morse potential. The spherical indenter is chosen, and the simulation is performed for different loading rates from 10 m/s to 200 m/s. Results show that the maximum indentation load and hardness of the system increase with the increase of velocity. The effect of indenter size on the nanoindentation response is also analysed. It is found that the maximum indentation load is higher for the large indenter whereas the hardness is higher for the smaller indenter. Dynamic nanoindentation is carried out to investigate the behaviour of Ni substrate to multiple loading-unloading cycles. It is observed from the results that the increase in the number of loading unloading cycles reduces the maximum load and hardness of the Ni substrate. This is attributed to the decrease in recovery force due to defects and dislocations produced after each indentation cycle.

Pore structure evolution of mudstone caprock under cyclic load-unload and its influence on breakthrough pressure

The pore structure of caprock plays an important role in underground gas storage security, as it significantly influences the sealing capacity of caprock. However, the pore structure evolution of caprock with the cyclic stress perturbations triggered by the cyclic gas injection or extraction remains unclear. In this study, the pore structure changes of mudstone caprock under cyclic loading and unloading were obtained by the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tests system, then the influence of the changes on the breakthrough pressure of caprock was discussed. The results indicated that the pore structure changes are depending on the stress loading-unloading path and stress level. In the first cyclic, at the loading stage, with the increase of confining stress, the NMR T2 spectrum curve moved to the left, the NMR signal amplitude of the first peak increased, while the amplitude of the second peak decreased gradually. This indicated that the larger pores of mudstone are compressed and transformed into smaller pores, then the number of macropores decreased and the number of micro- and mesopores increased. For a certain loading-unloading cycle, the porosity curve of mudstone in the loading process is not coincide with that in the unloading process, the porosity curve in the loading process was located below that in the unloading process, which indicated that the pore structure change is stress path dependent. With the increase of cycle numbers, the total porosity shown an increasing trend, indicating that the damage of mudstone occurred under the cyclic stress load-unload effects. With the increase of porosity, the breakthrough pressure of mudstone decreased with the increase of the cyclic numbers, which may increase the gas leakage risk. The results can provide significant implication for the underground gas storage security evaluation.