Experimental investigation on shear strength deterioration at the interface between different rock types under cyclic loading

The shear strength deterioration of bedding planes between different rock types induced by cyclic loading is vital to reasonably evaluate the stability of soft and hard interbedded bedding rock slopes under earthquake;however,rare work has been devoted to this subject due to lack of attention.In this study,experimental investigations on shear strength weakening of discontinuities with different joint wall material(DDJM)under cyclic loading were conducted by taking the interface between siltstone and mudstone in the Shaba slope of Yunnan Province,China as research objects.A total of 99 pairs of similar material samples of DDJM(81 pairs)and discontinuities with identical joint wall material(DIJM)(18 pairs)were fabricated by inserting plates,engraved with typical surface morphology obtained by performing three-dimensional laser scanning on natural DDJMs sampled from field,into mold boxes.Cyclic shear tests were conducted on these samples to study their shear strength changes with the cyclic number considering the effects of normal stress,joint surface morphology,shear displacement amplitude and shear rate.The results indicate that the shear stress vs.shear displacement curves under each shear cycle and the peak shear strength vs.cyclic number curves of the studied DDJMs are between those of DIJMs with siltstone and mudstone,while closer to those of DIJMs with mudstone.The peak shear strengths of DDJMs exhibit an initial rapid decline followed by a gradual decrease with the cyclic number and the decrease rate varies from 6%to 55.9%for samples with varied surface morphology under different testing conditions.The normal stress,joint surface morphology,shear displacement amplitude and shear rate collectively influence the shear strength deterioration of DDJM under cyclic shear loading,with the degree of influence being greater for larger normal stress,rougher surface morphology,larger shear displacement amplitude and faster shear rate.

Effect of shear-induced contact area and aperture variations on nonlinear flow behaviors in fractal rock fractures

This study experimentally analyzes the nonlinear flow characteristics and channelization of fluid through rough-walled fractures during the shear process using a shear-flow-visualization apparatus.A series of fluid flow and visualization tests is performed on four transparent fracture specimens with various shear displacements of 1 mm,3 mm,5 mm,7 mm and 10 mm under a normal stress of 0.5 MPa.Four granite fractures with different roughnesses are selected and quantified using variogram fractal dimensions.The obtained results show that the critical Reynolds number tends to increase with increasing shear displacement but decrease with increasing roughness of fracture surface.The flow paths are more tortuous at the beginning of shear because of the wide distribution of small contact spots.As the shear displacement continues to increase,preferential flow paths are more distinctly observed due to the decrease in the number of contact spots caused by shear dilation;yet the area of single contacts in-creases.Based on the experimental results,an empirical mathematical equation is proposed to quantify the critical Reynolds number using the contact area ratio and fractal dimension.

Permeability evolution during pressure-controlled shear slip in saw-cut and natural granite fractures

Fluid injection into rock masses is involved during various subsurface engineering applications.However,elevated fluid pressure,induced by injection,can trigger shear slip(s)of pre-existing natural fractures,resulting in changes of the rock mass permeability and thus injectivity.However,the mechanism of slip-induced permeability variation,particularly when subjected to multiple slips,is still not fully understood.In this study,we performed laboratory experiments to investigate the fracture permeability evolution induced by shear slip in both saw-cut and natural fractures with rough surfaces.Our experiments show that compared to saw-cut fractures,natural fractures show much small effective stress when the slips induced by triggering fluid pressures,likely due to the much rougher surface of the natural fractures.For natural fractures,we observed that a critical shear displacement value in the relationship between permeability and accumulative shear displacement:the permeability of natural fractures initially increases,followed by a permeability decrease after the accumulative shear displacement reaches a critical shear displacement value.For the saw-cut fractures,there is no consistent change in the measured permeability versus the accumulative shear displacement,but the first slip event often induces the largest shear displacement and associated permeability changes.The produced gouge material suggests that rock surface damage occurs during multiple slips,although,unfortunately,our experiments did not allow quantitatively continuous monitoring of fracture surface property changes.Thus,we attribute the slip-induced permeability evolution to the interplay between permeability reductions,due to damages of fracture asperities,and permeability enhancements,caused by shear dilation,depending on the scale of the shear displacement.

Influence of reaction piles on test pile response in a static load test

This work presents a new analytical method to analyze the influence of reaction piles on the test pile response in a static load test.In our method,the interactive effect between soil and pile is simulated using independent springs and the shear displacement method is adopted to analyze the influence of reaction piles on test pile response.Moreover,the influence of the sheltering effect between reaction piles and test pile on the test pile response is taken into account.Two cases are analyzed to verify the rationality and efficiency of the present method.This method can be easily extended to a nonlinear response of an influenced test pile embedded in a multilayered soil,and the validity is also demonstrated using centrifuge model tests and a computer program presented in the literature.The present analyses indicate that the proposed method will lead to an underestimation of the test pile settlement in a static load test if the influence of the presence of reaction piles on the test pile response is neglected.