The creep of potash salt rocks from Saskatchewan

Summary The results of creep tests on the Esterhazy-and the Patience-Lake-types of potash salt rocks from Saskatchewan, Canada are presented. The investigations involved over 6 years of time-dependent experiments in uniaxial compression using potash from the Rocanville and the Lanigan mines of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. A creep test at a given load would last from 2 to 8 months, with most tests conducted over a 4-month period.Since the yield stress of both types of potash lies between 9 and 11 MPa, there is very little creep below 11 MPa. Between 11 and 13 MPa, creep strain production increases sharply through plastic deformation. Above about 13 MPa, however, plastic creep is dominated by brittle creep caused by microcracking. As a result, the lateral and volume creep strain curves may then display the transient and the steady-state, or all three stages of creep, while the axial strain, which is not affected by microcracking, usually attenuates for the whole duration.Two different interpretations of the results are offered. Identifying the last (the fourth) month of testing with the steady-state model, the stress dependence of the steady-state rate has been established for both rock types. A unimodal rate model for the axial strain and a bimodal model for the lateral strain are suggested. The alternate interpretation proceeds on the assumption that under 13 MPa, both the axial and the lateral strain can be modelled through the power function formulation of transient strain.