Strength failure and crack coalescence behavior of sandstone containing single pre-cut fissure under coupled stress, fluid flow and changing chemical environment

In order to study the strength failure and crack coalescence characteristics of cracked rocks, uniaxial compression experiments were conducted on cylindrical sandstone specimens, sampled from Longyou Grottoes of Zhejiang Province, China, with a single pre-cut crack soaking in different chemical solutions. Based on the results of uniaxial compressive test under different chemical solutions and velocities of flow, the effect of strength and deformation characteristics and main modes of crack coalescence for cracked rocks under chemical corrosion were analyzed. The results show that the pH value and velocity of the chemical solutions both have great influence on the sandstone sample's uniaxial compressive strength and deformation characteristics. Cracked sandstone samples are tension-destructed under uniaxial compression, and the crack propagation directions are consistent with the loading direction. The phenomena of crack initiation, propagation and coalescence of sandstone are well observed. Four different crack types are identified based on the crack propagation mechanism by analyzing the ultimate failure modes of sandstone containing a single pre-cut fissure. The failure process of specimen in air is similar with the specimen under chemical solutions, however, the initial time of crack occuring in specimen under chemical solutions is generally earlier than that in the natural specimen, and the crack propagation and coalescence process of specimen under chemical solutions are longer than those of the natural specimen due to softening of structure of rock caused by hydro-chemical action. Immersion velocity of flow and chemical solutions does not have influence on the ultimate modes of crack coalescence.

Physical and mechanical properties of sandstone containing a single fissure after exposure to high temperatures

In order to investigate the physical and mechanical properties of sandstone containing fissures after exposure to high temperatures,fissures with different angles α were prefabricated in the plate sandstone samples,and the processed samples were then heated at 5 different temperatures.Indoor uniaxial compression was conducted to analyze the change rules of physical properties of sandstone after exposure to high temperature,and the deformation,strength and failure characteristics of sandstone containing fissures.The results show that,with increasing temperature,the volume of sandstone increases gradually while the quality and density decrease gradually,and the color of sandstone remains basically unchanged while the brightness increases markedly when the temperature is higher than 585 ℃;the peak strength of sandstone containing fissures first decreases then increases when the temperature is between 25℃and 400℃.The peak strain of sandstone containing fissures increases gradually while the average modulus decreases gradually with increasing temperature,and the mechanical properties of sandstone show obvious deterioration after 400 ℃.The peak strain of sandstone containing fissures increases gradually while the average modulus decreases gradually with increasing temperature;with increasing angle αof the fissure,the evolution characteristics of the macro-mechanical parameters of sandstone are closely related to the their own mechanical properties.When the temperature is 800 ℃,the correlation between the peak strength and average modulus of sandstone and the angle α of the fissure is obviously weakened.The failure modes of sandstone containing fissures after high temperature exposure are of three different kinds including:tensile crack failure,tensile and shear cracks mixed failure,and shear crack failure.Tensile and shear crack mixed failure occur mainly at low temperatures and small angles;tensile crack failure occurs at high temperatures and large angles.