Macro-micro behaviors and failure mechanism of frozen weakly cemented mudstone

Understanding the mechanical properties and multiscale failure mechanism of frozen soft rock is an important prerequisite for the construction safety of tunnels,artificially frozen ground and other infrastructure in cold regions.In this study,the triaxial compression test are performed on mudstone in the weakly cemented soft rock strata in the mining area of western China,and the mechanical characteristics and failure mechanism of weakly cemented mudstone are systematically investigated under the combined action of freezing and loading.Furthermore,the quantitative relationship between the microstructural parameters and the macroscopic strength and deformation parameters is established based on fractal theory.Thus,the failure mechanism of frozen weakly cemented mudstone is revealed on both micro- and macro-scales.The results show that temperature and confining pressure significantly affects the elastic modulus and peak strength of weakly cemented mudstone.With decreasing temperature,the compressive strength increases,while the corresponding peak strain decreases gradually.On the deformation curve,the plastic deformation stage is shortened,and the brittle fracture feature at the post-peak stage is more prominent,and the elastic modulus correspondingly increases with decreasing temperature.Under low-temperature conditions,most of the weakly cemented mudstone undergoes microscopic shear failure along the main fracture surface.The micro-fracture morphology characteristics of weakly cemented mudstone under different temperatures are quantified via the fractal dimension,and an approximately exponential relationship can be obtained among the fractal dimension and the temperature,compressive strength and elastic modulus.

Study on the critical stress threshold of weakly cemented sandstone damage based on the renormalization group method

During the microstructural analysis of weakly cemented sandstone,the granule components and ductile structural parts of the sandstone are typically generalized.Considering the contact between granules in the microstructure of weakly cemented sandstone,three basic units can be determined:regular tetrahedra,regular hexahedra,and regular octahedra.Renormalization group models with granule-and pore-centered weakly cemented sandstone were established,and,according to the renormalization group transformation rule,the critical stress threshold of damage was calculated.The results show that the renormalization model using regular octahedra as the basic units has the highest critical stress threshold.The threshold obtained by iterative calculations of the granule-centered model is smaller than that obtained by the pore-centered model.The granule-centered calculation provides the lower limit(18.12%),and the pore-centered model provides the upper limit(36.36%).Within this range,the weakly cemented sandstone is in a phase-like critical state.That is,the state of granule aggregation transforms from continuous to discrete.In the relative stress range of 18.12%-36.36%,the weakly cemented sandstone exhibits an increased proportion of high-frequency signals(by 83.3%)and a decreased proportion of low-frequency signals(by 23.6%).The renormalization calculation results for weakly cemented sandstone explain the high-low frequency conversion of acoustic emission signals during loading.The research reported in this paper has important significance for elucidating the damage mechanism of weakly cemented sandstone.

Support technology for mine roadways in extreme weakly cemented strata and its application

For the engineering geology conditions of bad mine roadway roof and floor lithology in extremely weak cemented strata, the best section shape of the roadway is determined from the study of tunnel surrounding rock displacement, plastic zone and stress distribution in rectangular, circle arch and arch wall sections, respectively. Based on the mining depth and thickness of the coal seam, roadway support technology solutions with different buried depth and thickness of coal seam are proposed. Support schemes are amended and optimized in time through monitoring data of the deformation of roadway, roof separation, l-beam bracket, bolt and anchor cable force to ensure the long-term stability and security of the roadway surrounding rock and support structure. The monitoring results show that mine roadway support schemes for different buried depth and section can be adapted to the characteristics of ground pressure and deformation of the surrounding rock in different depth well, effectively control the roadway surrounding rock deformation and the floor heave and guarantee the safety of construction and basic stability of surrounding rock and support structure.

Experimental study on the bolt–cable combined supporting technology for the extraction roadways in weakly cemented strata

Aiming at the characteristics of the poor steady ability, the short stable time and severe deformation behavior of weakly cemented soft surrounding rock around extraction roadway, a bolt–cable combined supporting technology was proposed. Numerical simulation was performed by using FLAC3 D software to study the effects of different supporting systems. The simulation result proves that those supporting systems have good practical values. Based on real-time monitoring and analysis of the deformation of surrounding rock and the stress of supporting structure, real time information of deformation of surrounding rock and stress state of supporting structure of extraction roadway within weakly cemented strata was obtained. Monitoring results show that large deformation and failure of surrounding rock of extraction roadway within weakly cemented strata can be effectively controlled by the bolt–cable combined supporting technology, which ensures the long-term stability and safety of surrounding rock and supporting structure.

Theoretical analysis of a new segmented anchoring style in weakly cemented soft surrounding rock

According to the tensile failure of rock bolt in weakly cemented soft rock, this paper presents a new segmented anchoring style in order to weaken the cumulative effect of anchoring force associated with the large deformation. Firstly, a segmented mechanical model was established in which free and anchoring section of rock bolt were respectively arranged in different deformation zones. Then, stress and displacement in elastic non-anchoring zone, elastic anchoring zone, elastic sticking zone, softening sticking zone and broken zone were derived respectively based on neural theory and tri-linear strain softening constitutive model of soft rock. Results show that the anchoring effect can be characterized by a supporting parameter b. With its increase, the peak value of tangential stress gradually moves to the roadway wall, and the radial stress significantly increases, which means the decrease of equivalent plastic zone and improvement of confining effect provided by anchorage body. When b increases to 0.72, the equivalent plastic zone disappears, and stresses tend to be the elastic solutions. In addition, the anchoring effect on the displacement of surrounding rock can be quantified by a normalization factor δ.

Characteristic strength and acoustic emission properties of weakly cemented sandstone at different depths under uniaxial compression

As coal mining is extended from shallow to deep areas along the western coalfield,it is of great significance to study weakly cemented sandstone at different depths for underground mining engineering.Sandstones from depths of 101.5,203.2,317.3,406.9,509.9 and 589.8 m at the Buertai Coal Mine were collected.The characteristic strength,acoustic emission(AE),and energy evolution of sandstone during uniaxial compression tests were analyzed.The results show that the intermediate frequency(125-275 kHz)of shallow rock mainly occurs in the postpeak stage,while deep rock occurs in the prepeak stage.The initiation strength and damage strength of the sandstone at different depths range from 0.23 to 0.50 and 0.63 to 0.84 of peak strength(σ_(c)),respectively,decrease exponentially and are a power function with depth.The precursor strength ranges from 0.88σ_(c)to 0.99σ_(c),increases with depth before reaching a depth of 300 m,and tends to stabilize after 300 m.The ratio of the initiation strength to the damage strength(k)ranges from 0.25 to 0.62 and decreases exponentially with depth.The failure modes of sandstone at different depths are tension-dominated mixed tensile-shear failure.Shear failure mainly occurs at the unstable crack propagation stage.The count of the shear failure bands before the peak strength increases gradually,and increases first and then decreases after the peak strength with burial depth.The cumulative input energy,released elastic energy and dissipated energy increase with depth.The elastic release rate ranges from 0.46×10^(-3)to 198.57×10^(-3)J/(cm^(3)s)and increases exponentially with depth.

Plastic zone analysis and support optimization of shallow roadway with weakly cemented soft strata

Based on a shallow roadway with weakly cemented soft strata in western China, this paper studies the range and degree of plastic zones in soft strata roadways with weak cementation. Geological radars were used to monitor the loose range and level of surrounding rocks. A mechanical model of weakly cemented roadway was established, including granular material based on the measured results. The model was then used to determine the plastic zone radium. The predicted results agree well with measured results which provide valuable theoretical references for the analysis of surrounding rock stability and support reinforcing design of weakly cemented roadways. Finally, a combined supporting scheme of whole section bolting and grouting was proposed based on the original supporting scheme. It is proved that this support plan can effectively control the deformation and plastic zone expansion of the roadway surrounding rock and thus ensure the long-term stable and safe mining.