Interaction between in situ stress states and tectonic faults:A comment

Understanding the in situ stress state is crucial in many engineering problems and earth science research.The present article presents new insights into the interaction mechanism between the stress state and faults.In situ stresses can be influenced by various factors,one of the most important being the existence of faults.A fault could significantly affect the value and direction of the stress components.Reorientation and magnitude changes in stresses exist adjacent to faults and stress jumps/discontinuities across the fault.By contrast,the change in the stress state may lead to the transformation of faulting type and potential fault reactivation.Qualitative fault reactivation assessment using characteristic parameters under the current stress environment provides a method to assess the slip tendency of faults.The correlation between in situ stresses and fault properties enhances the ability to predict the fault slip tendency via stress measurements,which can be used to further refine the assessment of the fault reactivation risk.In the future,stress measurements at greater depths and long-term continuous real-time stress monitoring near/on key parts of faults will be essential.In addition,much attention needs to be paid to distinguishing the genetic mechanisms of abnormal stress states and the type and scale of stress variations and exploring the mechanisms of pre-faulting anomaly and fault reactivation.

Effects of stress state on texture and microstructure in cold drawing-bulging of CP-Ti sheet

Three different stress states of the combination of tensile（t） stress and compressive（c） stress,t t,t c and t c c,exist in the deformed commercially pure titanium（CP-Ti） sheet during cold drawing-bulging.The textures and microstructures in the different stress state regions were investigated by means of XRD and TEM analysis.Similar development of texture and microstructure is achieved with less thickness strain under multiaxial stresses in drawing-bulging than in cold rolling.The results show that texture and microstructure are much sensitive to multiaxial stresses.Twinning is more easily activated under compressive stress than tensile stress.Prism a slip is heavily affected by tensile stress,resulting in a remarkable change of the intensity of（0°,35°,0°） texture,while pyramidal c＋a slip,forming（20°,35°,30°） texture,weakens with the increase of thickness strain in spite of stress state.

Advanced test methods of material property characterization:high strain-rate testing and experimental simulation of multiaxial stress states

Optimum utilization of the loading capability of engineering materials is an important and active contribution to protect nature's limited resources,and it is the key for economic design methods.In order to make use of the materials' resources,those must be known very well;but conventional test methods will offer only limited informational value.The range of questions raised is as wide as the application of engineering materials,and partially they are very specific.The development of huge computer powers enables numeric modelling to simulate structural behaviour in rather complex loading environments-so the real material behaviour is known under the given loading conditions.Here the art of material testing design starts.To study the material behaviour under very distinct and specific loading conditions makes it necessary to simulate different temperature ranges,loading speeds, environments etc.and mostly there doesn't exist any commonly agreed test standard.In this contribution two popular,non-standard test procedures and test systems will be discussed on the base of their application background,special design features as well as test results and typically gained information:The demand for highspeed tests up to 1000 s^(-1) of strain rate is very specific and originates primarily in the automotive industry and the answers enable CAE analysis of crashworthiness of vehicle structures under crash conditions.The information on the material behaviour under multiaxial loading conditions is a more general one.Multiaxial stress states can be reduced to an equivalent stress,which allows the evaluation of the material's constraint and criticality of stress state.Both discussed examples shall show that the open dialogue between the user and the producer of testing machines allows custom-tailored test solutions.

Tectonic Stress State Changes Before and After the Wenchuan M_s 8.0 Earthquake in the Eastern Margin of the Tibetan Plateau

Crustal tectonic activities are essentially the consequences of the accumulation and release of in situ stress. Therefore, studying the stress state near active faults is important for understanding crustal dynamics and earthquake occurrences. In this paper, using in situ stress measurement results obtained by hydraulic fracturing in the vicinity of the Longmenshan fault zone before and after the Wenchuan Ms 8.0 earthquake and finite element modeling, the variation of stress state before and after the Wenchuan M. 8.0 earthquake is investigated. The results show that the shear stress, which is proportional to the difference between principal stresses, increases with depth and distance from the active fault in the calm period or after the earthquakes, and tends to approach to the regional stress level outside the zone influenced by the fault. This distribution appears to gradually reverse with time and the change of fault properties such as frictional strength. With an increase in friction coefficient, low stress areas are reduced and areas with increased stress accumulation are more obvious near the fault. In sections of the fault with high frictional strengths, in situ stress clearly increases in the fault. Stress accumulates more rapidly in the fault zone relative to the surrounding areas, eventually leading to a stress field that peaks at the fault zone. Such a reversal in the stress field between the fault zone and surrounding areas in the magnitude of the stress field is a potential indicator for the occurrence of strong earthquakes.

Effect of hydrogen content and stress state on room-temperature mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy

This work aims to investigate the effects of hydrogen content(in the range of 0%-0.5%,mass fraction)and stress state (tension and compression)on the room-temperature mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy through mechanical properties tests. The effects of hydrogen content on microstructure evolution of Ti-6Al-4V alloy is also examined by optical microscopy,X-ray diffractometry,transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.The results show that hydrogen content and stress state have important effects on the room-temperature mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy.Tensile strength and ultimate elongation decrease with increasing the hydrogen content,while compressive strength and ultimate reduction are improved after hydrogenation.The reason is that the intergranular deformation dominates at the state of tension.Hydrogen atoms in solid solution and hydrides at grain boundaries increase with increasing the hydrogen content and they can promote the initiation and propagation of cracks along grain boundaries.While the intragranular deformation dominates at the state of compression.The plastic beta phase and hydrides increase with increasing the hydrogen content and they improve the ultimate reduction and compressive strength.

2-D elastic FEM simulation on stress state in the deep part of a subducted slab

Based upon some simplified numerical models, a 2-D plain strain elastic FEM program is compiled to study the distributions of the stress fields produced by the volume change of the phase transformation from olivine to spinel, by the volume change from temperature variation, and by density difference and boundary action in a piece of subducted slab located in transition zone of the mantle. Thermal stress could explain the fault plane solutions of deep focus earthquakes, but could not explain the distribution of deep seismicity. When large extent metastable olivine is included, the stress field produced by the density difference contradicts with the results of fault plane solutions and with the distribution of deep seismicity. Although the stress produced by volume change of the phase transformation from olivine to spinel dominates the stress state, its main direction is different from the observed results. We conclude that the deep seismicity could not be simply explained by elastic simulation.

Effect of stress state on deformation and fracture of nanocrystalline copper:Molecular dynamics simulation

Deformation in a microcomponent is often constrained by surrounding joined material making the component under mixed loading and multiple stress states. In this study, molecular dynamics （MD） simulation are conducted to probe the effect of stress states on the deformation and fracture of nanocrystalline Cu. Tensile strain is applied on a Cu single crystal, bicrystal and polycrystal respectively, under two different tension boundary conditions. Simulations are first conducted on the bicrystal and polycrystal models without lattice imperfection. The results reveal that, compared with the performance of simulation models under free boundary condition, the transverse stress caused by the constrained boundary condition leads to a much higher tensile stress and can severely limit the plastic deformation, which in return promotes cleavage fracture in the model. Simulations are then performed on Cu single crystal and polycrystal with an initial crack. Under constrained boundary condition, the crack tip propagates rapidly in the single crystal in a cleavage manner while the crack becomes blunting and extends along the grain boundaries in the polycrystal. Under free boundary condition, massive dislocation activities dominate the deformation mechanisms and the crack plays a little role in both single crystals and polycrystals.

Hydromechanical behaviors of andesite under different stress states during fluid injection

Water reinjection into the formation is an indispensable operation in many energy engineering practices.This operation involves a complex hydromechanical(HM)coupling process and sometimes even causes unpredictable disasters,such as induced seismicity.It is acknowledged that the relative magnitude and direction of the principal stresses significantly influence the HM behaviors of rocks during injection.However,due to the limitations of current testing techniques,it is still difficult to comprehensively conduct laboratory injection tests under various stress conditions,such as in triaxial extension stress states.To this end,a numerical study of HM changes in rocks during injection under different stress states is conducted.In this model,the saturated rock is first loaded to the target stress state under drainage conditions,and then the stress state is maintained and water is injected from the top to simulate the formation injection operation.Particular attention is given to the difference in HM changes under triaxial compression and extension stresses.This includes the differences in the pore pressure propagation,mean effective stress,volumetric strain,and stress-induced permeability.The numerical results demonstrate that the differential stress will significantly affect the HM behaviors of rocks,but the degree of influence is different under the two triaxial stress states.The HM changes caused by the triaxial compression stress states are generally greater than those of extension,but the differences decrease with increasing differential stress,indicating that the increase in the differential stress will weaken the impact of the stress state on the HM response.In addition,the shear failure potential of fracture planes with various inclination angles is analyzed and summarized under different stress states.It is recommended that engineers could design suitable injection schemes according to different tectonic stress fields versus fault occurrence to reduce the risk of injection-induced seismicity.

Experimental study of seepage characteristics of single rock fracture based on stress states and stress history

Through seepage tests under different loading and unloading confining pressures and different hydraulic gradients,the authors studied the effects of stress states and stress history on fracture permeability evolution for single granite fracture and sandstone fracture. The results show that there exists a linear relationship between the seepage discharge and osmotic pressure in sandstone fissure under each level of confining pressure. With the increasing in the confining pressure,the permeability of the fracture decreases,but the decreasing rate is changeing. During the unloading process,the fracture seepage velocity cannot be fully recovered to the size of the loading process. Therefore,in the unloading process of the confining pressure,the recovery of fracture permeability shows obvious hysteresis effects. The flow rate of the fracture remains unchanged during five cycles of loading and unloading processes of the confining pressure. In each cycle,the evolution character of the flow rate with the confining pressure remains unchanged. These experiments show that the seepage characteristics of sandstone and granite fractures are not the same under the same stress state.

The stress state of geological structure and mining dynamic disaster in Fuxin basin

Further evidences show that most mining dynamic disasters are mainly oc- curred nearby NNE and near SN geological structures.In-situ stress measurement in Fuxin basin shows that the orientation of major compressed stress is near EW.At this stress field,geological structures with deferent strike have deferent stress state and dis- place mode.NNE and near SN geological structures are compressed to thrust and come into being high stress zone.NWW and NEE geological structures are tensile to separate and not prone to being low stress zone.NW structure is intervenient of them.So NEE and near SN structures are easy to occurre mining dynamic disasters and NWW and NEE structures is 'safety' comparatively.The mining dynamic disaster is controlled by stress state of geologic structure,which is determined by its strike.

Effect of intermediate principal stress on strength of soft rock under complex stress states

A series of numerical simulations of conventional and true triaxial tests for soft rock materials using the three-dimensional finite difference code FLAC3D were presented. A hexahedral element and a strain hardening/softening constitutive model based on the unified strength theory(UST) were used to simulate both the consolidated-undrained(CU) triaxial and the consolidated-drained(CD) true triaxial tests. Based on the results of the true triaxial tests simulation, the effect of the intermediate principal stress on the strength of soft rock was investigated. Finally, an example of an axial compression test for a hard rock pillar with a soft rock interlayer was analyzed using the two-dimensional finite difference code FLAC. The CD true triaxial test simulations for diatomaceous soft rock suggest the peak and residual strengths increase by 30% when the effect of the intermediate principal stress is taken into account. The axial compression for a rock pillar indicated the peak and residual strengths increase six-fold when the soft rock interlayer approached the vertical and the effect of the intermediate principal stress is taken into account.

Reexamining the Seismological Implications of the Present-day Stress State of the Yingxiu-Beichuan Fault after the Wenchuan Earthquake

The present-day stress state of the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault after the Wenchuan earthquake was re-estimated using measured in-situ stress data obtained after the Wenchuan earthquake. The results reveal that the gradient coefficients of principal stresses versus depth decrease from south to north along the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault, revealing that the stress level decreases from south to north. The consistency between the present-day stress levels and surface ruptures generated during the earthquake indicates that the accumulated tectonic stress beneath the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault before the Wenchuan earthquake was relieved in form of surface ruptures. This resulted in the stress remaining high in the southern section of the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault but relatively low in the northern section. Abnormal high pore pressure conditions and an extremely low frictional coefficient play important role in the interpretation of the stress field adjustment and seismic events observed after the Wenchuan earthquake along this fault, according to the estimation results using the Coulomb frictional-failure theory incorporating frictional coefficients ranging from 0.4 to 1.0. To accurately estimate the seismological hazard of the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault by analyzing fault instability using the Coulomb frictional-failure theory, much attention should be focused on the pore pressure conditions and the evolution state of the frictional coefficient under the present-day stress state.

Effect of Poisson’s ratio on stress state in the Wenchuan M_S8.0 earthquake fault

The Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake occurred on the Longmenshan fault which inclines at a dip angle exceeding 60 degrees. Since most thrust earthquakes occur on faults with dip angles of about 30 degrees, it is enigmatic why the Wenchuan earthquake occurred on such a steep fault. In this study we use a simple finite element model to investigate how the stress state in the fault changes with the variation of Poisson＇s ratio. The results show that, with the Poisson＇s ratio in the fault increasing, the magnitudes of the principal stresses increase and the maximum Shear stress decrease, and, especially, the angle between the maximum principal stress and the fault plane decreases, which will enhance the driving force to overcome the frictional resistance on the fault. The increase of Poisson＇s ratio in the fault may be an important factor to affect the occurrence of the fault earthquakes with large angles between maximum principal stress and fault plane.

2-D viscoelastic FEM simulation on stress state in the deep part of a subducted slab

The characteristics of the stress fields in deep subducting slabs are studied using viscoelastic plain strain finite element method. When introducing the new rheology structure given by Karato, et al into our computation, there emerge two regions with great shear stress just below the olivine-spinel phase transition zone, which encompass the low viscosity zone below the lower tip of the metastable wedge. Further, the directions of the main compressional stress of these two regions are all along the dip direction of the slab. These are in accordance with the seismic observations that there are two deep seismic zones in a slab and the directions of the main compressional stress in these two seismic zones are along the dip direction of the slab. Smaller effective viscosity probably caused by smaller grain size in the phase transformation zone does not have great influence on the stress state in the deep part of the slab. There is the maximum of shear stress at the transition region from olivine to spinel and the direction of the main compressional stress in this region is roughly perpendicular to the trend of the phase boundary no matter whether there exists metastable wedge, which nevertheless do not correspond to some well-known seismic observations.

Secondary Stress State around the Bored Hole in Salt Strata

In Romania, rendering the oil structures evident in the deep strata （= 6,000 m） is conditioned by the penetration of some salt deposits of appreciable thickness （500-3,000 m） situated above the structures with petroleum potential. Crossing by the drilling of these salt deposits constitutes a major risk factor both in achievement （drilling, cementing） and afterwards, to ensure the stability-reliability of the wells. Based on these reasons, the researches have been focused on： the study of salt behavior deformation, establishment of the required parameters to ensure the stability of the drillings until the bore-hole lining （especially the secondary stress state around the drilling, the density of the drilling fluid in correlation with the temperature and respectively the depth） and also after casing （type of the cement pastes, the nature, the quality and the dimensions of pipes）, namely the reliability of the wells.

Experimental Evaluation of Ductile Fracture of Sheet Metals under Plane Stress States

With the application of lightweight materials such as advanced high-strength steel and aluminum alloy in the automotive industry, it is necessary to quantitatively evaluate the ultimate deformation capacity of materials under various plane stress states for the digital simulation of these materials. Conventional Nakajima test can only provide three regular plane stress states, such as tension, plane strain tension and bulging, and FLC curve is affected by deformation path, mold lubrication and other variables. More importantly, Nakajima test cannot provide shear, tension shear, which are extremely important loading conditions in automobile collisions. Therefore, the research work of this paper focuses on the evaluation of the ultimate ductile fracture behavior of sheet metals under various conditions of plane stress states. The four variables Mohr-Coulomb model was established to study the ductile fracture of metal sheets under plane stress states. Beginning with the recorded minor and major strain distributing on the deformation area of uniaxial tension samples, Moving Regression Algorithm was deployed to reveal the inherent relationship among the key parameters involved in the M-C model, which also provided an experimental technique for monitoring the instantaneous changing of triaxiality over the whole loading period. Three or four typical types of uniaxial-loading specimens were well designed to determine the M-C curve. As a result, M-C curve and the transformed major stain vs. minor strain curve provide further information about the material arrest to the ductile fracture in the area of shear loading, in comparison with the conventional FLD test.

Preliminaries for a New Mathematical Framework for Modelling Tumour Growth Using Stress State Decomposition Technique

The main goal of the present paper is to present a mathematical framework for modelling tumour growth based on stress state decomposition technique (SSDT). This is a straightforward extension of the model for multi-phase nonsaturated soil consolidation with pollutant transport presented by the authors and may be regarded as an alternative to classical frameworks based on TCAT theory. In this preliminary work, the Representative Volume Element (RVE) for tumour is proposed along with its comparison with the corresponding one for soils modelling developed formerly by the authors. Equations standing for tumour phase are flawlessly brought into correspondence with those of gaseous phase in the soil problem showing that a similar task may be carried out for the remainders phases taking part in both RVEs. Furthermore, stresses induced by nonlinear saturation and permeability dependence on suction for soil interstitial fluids transport finds its counterpart on the contact between the cancer cell membrane and interstitial fluids rendering a higher primary variables coupling degree than what was attained in TCAT theory. From these preliminaries assessments, it may be put forward that likewise the stress state decomposition procedure stands for an alternative for modelling multi-phase nonsaturated soil consolidation with pollutant transport;it does for modelling cancer as well.

Finite-Element Analysis of Parts Stress State of Tight Joint Assembled by Press Fitting

This paper includes descriptions of the stress distribution regularities in the tight joint parts, regularities of the stress state changes in the contact region along coupling length, stress concentration factors, levels of additional stresses caused by press fitting. Distributions of stress intensity, axial stress, contact pressure, tangent stress in parts and in contact zone along coupling length are considered. Calculation results obtained by three approaches: Lame relationships, FEM without considering assembly method, FEM with considering press fitting process are analyzed and compared. The adequacy of research carried out is confirmed.

Modeling time-dependent mechanical behavior of hard rock considering excavation-induced damage and complex 3D stress states

To investigate the long-term stability of deep rocks,a three-dimensional(3D)time-dependent model that accounts for excavation-induced damage and complex stress state is developed.This model comprises three main components:a 3D viscoplastic isotropic constitutive relation that considers excavation damage and complex stress state,a quantitative relationship between critical irreversible deformation and complex stress state,and evolution characteristics of strength parameters.The proposed model is implemented in a self-developed numerical code,i.e.CASRock.The reliability of the model is validated through experiments.It is indicated that the time-dependent fracturing potential index(xTFPI)at a given time during the attenuation creep stage shows a negative correlation with the extent of excavationinduced damage.The time-dependent fracturing process of rock demonstrates a distinct interval effect of the intermediate principal stress,thereby highlighting the 3D stress-dependent characteristic of the model.Finally,the influence of excavation-induced damage and intermediate principal stress on the time-dependent fracturing characteristics of the surrounding rocks around the tunnel is discussed.

Identification of meta-instable stress state based on experimental study of evolution of the temperature field during stick-slip instability on a 5° bending fault

Identification of the meta-instable stress state and study of its mechanism and evolution of relevant physical fields would be of great significance for determination of potential seismic risks and estimation of critical times. In laboratory experiments, that the specimen enters the meta-instable is marked by accelerated stress release. Could we use the experimental result to identify the earthquake in natural conditions? Because the observational data from one station can only reflect the stress state beneath this station, the key problem for identification of the meta-instability is how to recognize regional stress state through observational data from many stations. In this work, we choose the evolution of the temperature field over varied deformation stages during a stick-slip event on a 5 bending fault as an example, and attempt to find the response features of the physical quantity when the fault enters the meta-instable state. We discuss the characteristics of stages for the stress build-up, stress-time process deviating from linearity before instability, meta-instability, instability, and post-instability, respectively. The result shows that the fault instability slide is a conversion process from independent activities of each fault segment to synergism activity. The instability implies completion of the synergism. The stage deviating from linearity is the onset of stress release, and it is also the onset of the synergism. At the meta-instability stages, stress release becomes dominant, while the synergism tends to finish. Therefore, the analysis of the regional overall stress state should not start from individual stations, and instead it should begin with the evolution of the whole deformation field.