A thermal stress loading technique for large-sized hot dry rock mechanical tests

Testing of large-sized specimens is becoming increasingly important in deep underground rock mechanics and engineering.In traditional mechanical loading,stresses on large-sized specimens are achieved by large host frames and hydraulic pumps,which could lead to great investment.Low-cost testing machines clearly always have great appeal.In this study,a new approach is proposed using thermal expansion stress to load rock specimens,which may be particularly suitable for tests of deep hot dry rock with high temperatures.This is a different technical route from traditional mechanical loading through hydraulic pressure.For the rock mechanics test system of hot dry rock that already has an investment in heating systems,this technology may reduce the cost of the loading subsystem by fully utilizing the temperature changes.This paper presents the basic principle and a typical design of this technical solution.Preliminary feasibility analysis is then conducted based on numerical simulations.Although some technical details still need to be resolved,the feasibility of this loading approach has been preliminarily confirmed.

State-of-the-art on the anchorage performance of rock bolts subjected to shear load

Rock bolts are extensively utilized in underground engineering as a means of offering support and stability to rock masses in tunnels,mines,and other underground structures.In environments of high ground stress,faults or weak zones can frequently arise in rock formations,presenting a significant challenge for engineering and potentially leading to underground engineering collapse.Rock bolts serve as a crucial structural element for the transmission of tensile stress and are capable of withstanding shear loads to prevent sliding of weak zones within rock mass.Therefore,a complete understanding of the behavior of rock bolts subjected to shear loads is essential.This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of the research progress of rock bolts subjected to shear load in three categories:experiment,numerical simulation,and analytical model.The review focuses on the research studies and developments in this area since the 1970s,providing a comprehensive overview of numerous factors that influence the anchorage performance of rock bolts.These factors include the diameter and angle of the rock bolt installation,rock strength,grouting material,bolt material,borehole diameter,rock bolt preload,normal stress,joint surface roughness and joint expansion angle.The paper reviews the improvement of mechanical parameter setting in numerical simulation of rock bolt shear.Furthermore,it delves into the optimization of the analytical model concerning rock bolt shear theory,approached from the perspectives of both Elastic foundation beam theory coupled with Elastoplasticity theory and Structural mechanic methods.The significance of this review lies in its ability to provide insights into the mechanical behavior of rock bolts.The paper also highlights the limitations of current research and guidelines for further research of rock bolts.

Model tests on XCC-piled embankment under dynamic train load of high-speed railways

Piled embankments,which offer many advantages,are increasingly popular in construction of high-speed railways in China.Although the performance of piled embankment under static loading is well-known,the behavior under the dynamic train load of a high-speed railway is not yet understood.In light of this,a heavily instrumented piled embankment model was set up,and a model test was carried out,in which a servo-hydraulic actuator outputting M-shaped waves was adopted to simulate the process of a running train.Earth pressure,settlement,strain in the geogrid and pile and excess pore water pressure were measured.The results show that the soil arching height under the dynamic train load of a high-speed railway is shorter than under static loading.The growth trend for accumulated settlement slowed down after long-term vibration although there was still a tendency for it to increase.Accumulated geogrid strain has an increasing tendency after long-term vibration.The closer the embankment edge,the greater the geogrid strain over the subsoil.Strains in the pile were smaller under dynamic train loads,and their distribution was different from that under static loading.At the same elevation,excess pore water pressure under the track slab was greater than that under the embankment shoulder.

Brazilian disc test study on tensile strength-weakening effect of high pre-loaded red sandstone under dynamic disturbance

Tensile failure(spalling or slabbing)often occurs on the sidewall of deep tunnel,which is closely related to the coupled stress state of deep rock mass under high pre-static load and dynamic disturbance.To reveal the mechanism of rock tensile failure caused by this coupled stress mode,the Brazilian disc tests were carried on red sandstone under high pre-static load induced by dynamic disturbance.Based on the pure static tensile fracture load of red sandstone specimen,two static load levels(80%and 90%of the pure static tensile fracture load)were selected as the initial high pre-static loading state,and then the dynamic disturbance load was applied until the rock specimen was destroyed.The dynamic disturbance loading mode adopted a sinusoidal wave(sine-wave)load,and the loading wave amplitude was 20%and 10%of the pure static tensile fracture load,respectively.The dynamic disturbance frequencies were set to 1,10,20,30,40,and 50 Hz.The results show that the tensile failure strength and peak displacement of red sandstone specimens under coupled load actions are lower than those under pure static tensile load,and both parameters decrease significantly with the increase of dynamic disturbance frequency.With the increase of dynamic disturbance frequency,the decrease range of tensile strength of red sandstone increased from 3.3%to 9.4%when the pre-static load level is 80%.While when the pre-static load level is 90%,the decrease range will increase from 7.4%to 11.6%.This weakening effect of tensile strength shows that the deep surrounding rock is more likely to fail under the coupled load actions of pre-static load and dynamic disturbance.In this tensile failure mechanism of the deep surrounding rock,the stress environment of deep sidewall rock determines that the failure mode of rock is a tensile failure,the pre-static load level dominates the tensile failure strength of surrounding rock,and dynamic disturbance promotes the strength-weakening effect and affects the weakening range.

Model test to investigate failure mechanism and loading characteristics of shallow-bias tunnels with small clear distance

Based on the similarity theory,a tunnel excavation simulation testing system under typical unsymmetrical loading conditions was established.Using this system,the failure mechanism of surrounding rock of shallow-bias tunnels with small clear distance was analyzed along with the load characteristics.The results show that:1) The failure process of surrounding rock of shallow-bias tunnels with small clear distance consists of structural and stratum deformation induced by tunnel excavation; Microfracture surfaces are formed in the tunnel surrounding rock and extend deep into the rock mass in a larger density; Tensile cracking occurs in shallow position on the deep-buried side,with shear slip in deep rock mass.In the meantime,rapid deformation and slip take place on the shallow-buried side until the surrounding rocks totally collapse.The production and development of micro-fracture surfaces in the tunnel surrounding rock and tensile cracking in the shallow position on the deep-buried side represent the key stages of failure.2) The final failure mode is featured by an inverted conical fracture with tunnel arch as its top and the slope at tunnel entrance slope as its bottom.The range of failure on the deep-buried side is significantly larger than that on the shallow-buried side.Such difference becomes more prominent with the increasing bias angle.What distinguishes it from the "linear fracture surface" model is that the model proposed has a larger fracture angle on the two sides.Moreover,the bottom of the fracture is located at the springing line of tunnel arch.3) The total vertical load increases with bias angle.Compared with the existing methods,the unsymmetrical loading effect in measurement is more prominent.At last,countermeasures are proposed according to the analysis results: during engineering process,1) The surrounding rock mass on the deep-buried side should be reinforced apart from the tunnel surrounding rock for shallow-buried tunnels with small clear distance; moreover,the scope of consolidation should go beyond the midline of tunnel(along the direction of the top of slope) by 4 excavation spans of single tunnel.2) It is necessary to modify the load value of shallow-bias tunnels with small clear distance.

Application of bi-directional static loading test to deep foundations

Bi-directional static loading test adopting load cells is widely used around the world at present, with increase in diameter and length of deep foundations. In this paper, a new simple conversion method to predict the equivalent pile head load-settlement curve considering elastic shortening of deep foundation was put forward according to the load transfer mechanism. The proposed conversion method was applied to root caisson foundation in a bridge and to large diameter pipe piles in a sea wind power plant. Some new load cells, test procedure, and construction technology were adopted based on the applications to different deep foundations, which could enlarge the application scopes of bi-directional loading test. A new type of bi-directional loading test for pipe pile was conducted, in which the load cell was installed and loaded after the pipe pile with special connector has been set up. Unlike the conventional bi-directional loading test, the load cell can be reused and shows an evident economic benefit.

Test and numerical investigations on static and dynamic characteristics of extra-wide concrete self-anchored suspension bridge under vehicle loads

The present work is aimed at studying the mechanic properties of the extra-wide concrete self-anchored suspension bridge under static and dynamic vehicle loads. Based on the field test using 12 heavy trucks and finite element simulations, the static deformations of different components, stress increments and distributions of the girder, as well as the vibration characteristics and damping ratio of the Hunan Road Bridge were analyzed, which is the widest self-anchored suspension bridge in China at present. The dynamic responses were calculated using the Newmark-β integration method assisted by the simulation models of bridge and vehicles, the influences on the dynamic impact coefficient(DIC) brought by the vehicle parameters, girder width, eccentricity travel and deck flatness were also researched. The spatial effect of the girder is obvious due to the extra width, which performs as the stress increments distribute unevenly along the transverse direction, and the girder deflections and stress increments of the upper plate change as a "V" and "M" shape respectively under the symmetrical vehicle loads affected by the shear lag effect, cross slope and local effect of the wheels, the maximum of stress increments are located in the junctions with the inner webs. The obvious girder torsional deformation and the apparent unevenness of the hanger forces between the two cable planes under the eccentric vehicle loads, together with the mode shapes such as the girder transverse bending and torsion which appear relatively earlier, all reflect the weakened torsional rigidity of the extra-wide girder. The transverse displacements of towers are more obvious than the longitudinal ones. As for the influences on the DIC, the static effect of the heavier vehicles plays a major role when pass through with a higher speed and the changes of vehicle suspension stiffness generate greater impacts than the suspension damp. The values of DIC in the vehicle-running side during the eccentric travel, affected by the restricts from the static effects of the eccentric moving trucks, are significantly smaller than the vehicle-free side, the increase in the road roughness is the most sensitive one among the above influential factors. The results could provide references for the design, static and dynamic response analysis of the similar extra-wide suspension bridges.

Mechanical Properties of Deep-buried Marble Material Under Loading and Unloading Tests

The mechanical properties are essentially different when rock material is subjected to loading or unloading conditions. In this study, loading and unloading tests with various confining pressures are conducted to investigate the mechanical properties of marble material samples taken from the deep diversion tunnels of Jinping II Hydropower Station. The stress-strain relationship, failure characteristics and strength criterion are compared and analyzed based on the experiment results. The results show： in the loading and unloading test, peak strength, lateral strain, axial strain and plastic deformation increase significantly as the confining pressure increases. Lateral strain increased significantly and obvious lateral dilatancy can be observed to the change of confining pressure; The fracture mode is mainly the single shear fracture for the triaxial compression test and post-peak test, angle between the failure surface and the ends of the rock material becomes smaller as the confining pressure increases. Hock-Brown strength criterion reflects the strength characteristics of marble material under two different unloading conditions, and has some supplementary effects to the rock material of mechanical field.

Design and Experiment of Electronic-hydraulic Loading Test-bed Based on Tractor's Hydraulic Steering By-wire

An Electro-hydraulic loading system is designed based on a test-bed of tractor's hydraulic steering by-wire. To simulate the steering resistance driving tractor in many kinds of soils and roads,the loading force is controlled to make proportional and continuous variable by an electro-hydraulic proportional relief valve. A steering resistance loading test-bed is built to test three kinds of steering resistance including constant,step and sine style. Tire lateral resistance is also tested under different steering conditions. The result shows that the electro-hydraulic loading system has high stability and following performance. Besides,the system's steady state error is lower than 3. 1%,and it meets the test requirement of tractor's hydraulic steering by-wire.

Field Load Test Based SHM System Safety Standard Determination for Rigid Frame Bridge

The deteriorated continuous rigid frame bridge is strengthened by external prestressing. Static loading tests wereconducted before and after the bridge rehabilitation to verify the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process. Thestiffness of the repaired bridge is improved, and the maximum deflection of the load test is reduced from 37.9 to27.6 mm. A bridge health monitoring system is installed after the bridge is reinforced. To achieve an easy assessmentof the bridge’s safety status by directly using transferred data, a real-time safety warning system is createdbased on a five-level safety standard. The threshold for each safety level will be determined by theoretical calculationsand the outcomes of static loading tests. The highest risk threshold will be set at the ultimate limit statevalue. The remaining levels, namely middle risk, low risk, and very low risk, will be determined usingreduction coefficients of 0.95, 0.9, and 0.8, respectively.

Behavior of transporting pipeline sections without and with hydrogen exposure based on full-scale tests

Pipeline transport of hydrogen is one of today’s economic and environmental challenges.In order to find safe and reliable application of both existing gas and build new pipelines,it is essential to carry out tests on full-scale pipeline section,including the potentially more dangerous places than the main pipe,the girth welds.For the investigations,pipeline sections of P355NH steel with girth welds were prepared and exposed to pure hydrogen at twice the maximum allowable operating pressure for 41 days.Subsequently,full-scale burst tests were carried out and specimens were cut and prepared from the typical locations of the failed pipeline sections for mechanical,and macro-and microstructural investigations.The results obtained were evaluated and compared with data from previous full-scale tests on pipeline sections without hydrogen exposure.The results showed differences in the behavior of pipeline sections loaded in different ways,with different characteristics of the materials and the welded joints,both in the cases without hydrogen exposure and in the cases exposed to hydrogen.

Load Transfer Test of Post-Tensioned Anchorage Zone in Ultra High Performance Concrete

Researches on ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) have been conducted worldwide owing to its outstanding durability and strength performances. The exploitation of the mechanical properties of UHPC will render it possible to achieve economic design through substantial reduction in the cross sectional dimensions and simplification in the reinforcement arrangement. This paper investigates experimentally the load transfer in the prestressed concrete anchorage zone. To provide distinctive features of UHPC compared to ordinary concrete, the cross sectional dimensions of the member were reduced and the stress distribution, deformation and cracking pattern of the PS anchorage zone were examined experimentally according to the degree of reinforcement of the members chosen. The distributions of the bursting stress, spalling stress and longitudinal edge stress in the specimens were observed according to the various types of reinforcement. All the specimens satisfied the load-bearing capacity criterion specified by the European ETAG-013 guidelines and their stress distributions were similar to those in the PS anchorages of post-tensioned members applying ordinary concrete. The cracks propagated longitudinally with lengths up to twice the cross sectional dimensions and their width was smaller than when applying ordinary concrete owing to the bridging effect of the steel fibers in UHPC. Accordingly, the exploitation of the high strength of UHPC enabled us to secure the resistance of the anchorage with no need for particular reinforcing devices.

Analysis of the Application of Static Load Test in Bridge Bearing Capacity Testing

This article uses real engineering projects as examples to analyze how static load test technology is applied in testing the bridge-bearing capacity.The analysis covers aspects such as testing section layout,test load and efficiency coefficient,loading plan,evaluation optimization,test result modification,and result evaluation.The aim is to support the accurate detection and evaluation of bridge-bearing capacity.

Loader and Tester Swarming Drones for Cellular PhoneNetwork Loading and Field Test: Non-stochasticParticle Swarm Optimization

Cellular network operators have problems to test their network without affecting their user experience. Testingnetwork performance in a loaded situation is a challenge for the network operator because network performance differswhen it has more load on the radio access part. Therefore, in this paper, deploying swarming drones is proposed to loadthe cellular network and scan/test the network performance more realistically. Besides, manual swarming dronenavigation is not efficient enough to detect problematic regions. Hence, particle swarm optimization is proposed to bedeployed on swarming drone to find the regions where there are performance issues. Swarming drone communicationshelps to deploy the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method on them. Loading and testing swarm separation help tohave almost non-stochastic received signal level as an objective function. Moreover, there are some situations that morethan one network parameter should be used to find a problematic region in the cellular network. It is also proposed toapply multi-objective PSO to find more multi-parameter network optimization at the same time.

Load Testing in Bridge Maintenance

Highway bridges are a crucial component in road transportation networks.These bridges must be maintained according to usage requirements regularly.Test results must be considered before devising a maintenance plan.Load testing is a vital method of assessing the quality and performance of highway bridges.The outcomes of these tests facilitate the formulation of maintenance plans.This article examines the definition of load testing,its significance,and the process of execution,with the goal of providing support for bridge inspection and maintenance.

Long-Term Loading Test of Reinforced Glulam Beam

Due to creep characteristics of wood,long-term loading can cause a significant stress loss of steel bars in rein-forced glulam beams and high long-term deflection of the beam midspan.In this study,15 glulam beams were subjected to a 90-day long-term loading test,and the effects of long-term loading value,reinforcement ratio and prestress level on the stress of steel bars,midspan long-term deflection,and other parameters were compared and analyzed.The main conclusions drawn from this study were that the long-term deflection of the reinforced glulam beams accounted for 22.5%,20.6%,and 18.2%of the total deflection respectively when the loading value was 20%,30%,and 40%of the estimated ultimate load under the long-term loading.The higher the loading level was,the smaller the proportion of the long-term deflection in the total deflection was.Compared with ordinary glulam beams,the long-term deflection of the reinforced glulam beam was even smaller.Under the condition of the constant loading level,the total stress value of the steel bars decreased by 17.5%,13.6%,and 9.1%,and the proportion of the long-term deflection of the beam midspan in the total deflection was 26.9%,24.2%,and 20.6%respectively when the reinforcement ratio was 2.05%,2.68%,and 3.39%.With the increase of the reinfor-cement ratio,the stress loss of the steel bars decreased,and the proportion of the long-term deflection decreased as well.When other conditions remained constant and the prestress level of the steel bars was 0 MPa,30 MPa,and 60 MPa,the total stress value of the steel bars decreased by 9.1%,9.4%,and 10.2%,respectively,and the propor-tion of the long-term deflection in the total deflection was 20.6%,26.1%,and 64.9%,respectively.With the increase of the prestress value,the stress loss of the steel bars increased,and the proportion of the long-term deflection increased as well.

A Reliable Method of Pile Load Test on Cast-in-Situ Pile Group of Existing Building for Retrofitting

Following the foundation failure of a building, with an aim of economical solution to strengthen other existing buildings of the same project, a new arrangement was implemented experimentally to test the adequacy of load bearing capacity of a few selected cast-in-situ RCC （reinforced cement concrete） pile groups without demolishing the existing buildings. In this test, the column bottom of an existing building was removed by the help of scaffolding and after that a frame system consisting tension piles and hollow beam was constructed over the pile cap of the to be tested pile group. The load was tested by the help of hydraulic jack system and the constructed frame system. This paper contains the detailed plan, arrangement and method of the test with illustrations. The deflection and loading data analysis is also included which was performed to determine the outcome of the test. Through this test method the appropriate assessment of capacity of pile group of existing building could be done successfully and in result the structure could be saved by only super structure retrofitting.

Acoustic Emission Properties of Concrete Slab During Fatigue Testing with a Running-Wheel Load

AE （acoustic emission） signals from concrete slab during fatigue testing with a running-wheel load were evaluated. The signals were recorded by remote sensors connected to a computer network. The sensing equipment consisted of 60 kHz resonant-type AE sensors mounted on a reinforcing steel bar as a waveguide, together with a 16-channel sensor highway AE system. Because the detected AE signals included periodic mechanical noise from the motion of the wheel, these noises were eliminated by means of signal processing. The AE waveguide measurement over a length of 3 m detected fractures as vertical and horizontal cracks in the RC （reinforced concrete） slab. Those cracks were analyzed by correlating AE parameters with macroscopic distortions and the numbers of fatigue cycles. In the AE events and AE energy, two types of AE phenomena, active region and inactive region, were observed during fatigue testing. The vertical cracks were characterized by an AE amplitude of 58 dB, a peak frequency of 30 kHz, and a ratio of the rise time to the maximum amplitude value （RA） of 100. The horizontal cracks were characterized by an AE amplitude of 85 dB, a peak frequency of 60 kHz, and an RA value of 10.

Discussion on bearing capacity of soft rock ground based on in-situ load test

The suitability of five methods was discussed here,taking the typical results from in-situ load test of Renshou Mansion and Caifu Plaza in Yueyang City for example.It shows that bearing capacity can be obtained by the proportion load and limit load from p-s curve with the first and the second point of contraflexure easily.It is recommended that the accurate value of bearing capacity can be obtained by hyperbola fitting method and minimum curvature radius method theoretically.The rebound method is clear in principle,in which the elastoplasticity characteristic is thought about.Out of consideration for the unsteadiness and unobviousness of bearing capacity from relative settlement method,it can be only adopted as reference.So bearing capacity of soft rock ground should be determined by weathering condition of soft rock and curve type.

Test Method for Refractoriness Under Load of Refractory Products(Non-differential,with Rising Temperature)

This standard specifies the definitions, theory, apparatus, specimens, procedures, test results and disposal, test error and report of test method for refractoriness under load of refractory products （non-differential, with rising temperature）.