The Effects of Temperature and Pressure on the Porosity Evolution of Flechtinger Sandstone

A porosity change influences the transport properties and the elastic moduli of rock while circulating water in a geothermal reservoir. The static and dynamic elastic moduli can be derived from the slope of stress–strain curves and velocity measurements, respectively. Consequently, the acoustic velocities were measured while performing hydrostatic drained tests. The effect of temperature on static and dynamic elastic moduli and porosity variations of Flechtinger sandstone was investigated in a wide range of confining pressure from 2 to 55 MPa. The experiments were carried out in a conventional triaxial system whereas the pore pressure remained constant, confining pressure was cycled, and temperature was increased step wise (25, 60, 90, 120, and 140 °C). The porosity variation was calculated by employing two different theories: poroelasticity and crack closure. The porosity variation and crack porosity were determined by the first derivative of stress–strain curves and the integral of the second derivative of stress–strain curves, respectively. The crack porosity analysis confirms the creation of new cracks at high temperatures. The porosity variation was increasing with an increase in temperature at low effective pressures and was decreasing with a rise in temperature at high effective pressures. Both compressional and shear wave velocities were increasing with increasing pressure due to progressive crack closure. Furthermore, the thermomechanical behavior of Flechtinger sandstone was characterized by an inversion effect where the sign of the temperature derivative of the drained bulk modulus changes.     

硬石膏常规三轴压缩下强度和变形特性的试验研究

采用伺服刚性试验机对硬石膏进行了不同围压下的常规三轴试验,研究了硬石膏的强度和变形特性。结果表明,在低围压下硬石膏破坏方式为剪切破坏;在围压超过10 MPa时,硬石膏表现出明显的塑性流动特性。观察试验后试样发现,在围压为18 MPa时,硬石膏已经没有明显的破坏面,而是表现出明显的膨胀现象。硬石膏的峰值强度与围压近似成正比例关系。分析了峰值应变、弹性模量随围压的变化规律,其结果表明：随着围压的升高,硬石膏的的峰值应变与弹性模量均逐渐增加。根据三轴试验结果绘制了摩尔包络线,采用回归分析得到了强度准则和抗剪强度参数c、? 值,其研究结果可为地下工程提供参考与借鉴。     

Mechanical properties and permeability evolution in gas-bearing coal–rock combination body under triaxial conditions

With the development of deep mining in recent years, coal and gas compound dynamic disasters become increasingly serious. In this study, uniaxial and triaxial compression tests were conducted on gas-bearing coals, coal–sandstone combined bodies and coal–mudstone combined bodies and the permeabilities in the triaxial tests were measured simultaneously. The mechanical behavior and seepage characteristics of coals and coal–rock combination bodies under triaxial conditions were compared in details. The results show that the peak strength among three samples is: coal–sandstone combined body > coal–mudstone combined body > coal. If other conditions were held constant, the strength and the elastic modulus of all specimens show that tendency increases with the increment of the confining pressure or with the decrease in the gas pressure. The strength characteristics of all three specimens met the Mohr–Coulomb criterion, and the residual strength has an increasing trend with the increase in confining pressure. The permeability evolutions of gas-bearing coals and coal–rock combination bodies which are determined by the crack propagation in the coals and rocks are not exactly the same. This preliminary study is intended to deepen our understandings of the mechanisms of coal–gas compound dynamic disasters and provide theoretical bases for their predictions.     

An experimental study on deformation and failure mechanical behavior of granite containing a single fissure under different confining pressures

Fissures in natural rocks play an important role in determining the strength, deformability and failure behavior of rock mass. However in the past, triaxial compression experiments have rarely been conducted for rock materials containing three-dimensional (3-D) fissures and the failure mechanical behavior of fissured rocks is not well known due to the difficulty of conducting triaxial experiments on fissured rocks. Therefore in this research, conventional triaxial compression experiments were performed to study the strength, deformability and failure behavior of granite specimens with one preexisting open fissure. Thirty-one specimens were prepared to perform conventional triaxial compression tests for intact and fissured granite. First, based on the experimental results, the effects of the confining pressure and the fissure angle on the elastic modulus and the peak axial strain of granite specimens are analyzed. Second, the influence of the confining pressure on the crack damage threshold and the peak strength of granite with respect to various fissure angles are evaluated. For the same fissure angle, the crack damage threshold and the peak strength of granite both increase with the confining pressure, which is in good agreement with the linear Mohr–Coulomb criterion. With increasing fissure angle, the cohesion of granite first increases and later decreases, but the internal friction angle is not obviously dependent on the fissure angle. Third, nine crack types are identified to analyze the failure characteristics of granite specimens containing a single fissure under conventional triaxial compression. Finally, a series of X-ray microcomputed tomography (CT) observations were conducted to analyze the internal damage mechanism of granite specimens with respect to various fissure angles. Reconstructed 3-D CT images indicate obvious effects of confining pressure and fissure angle on the crack system of granite specimens. The study helps to elucidate the fundamental nature of rock failure under conventional triaxial compression.     

冻结饱水砂卵石三轴压缩强度试验研究

为研究北京富水砂卵石地层冻结后的强度特性,以北京某地铁暗挖车站砂卵石为研究对象,进行不同温度（?5、?10、?15、?20℃）,不同围压（0.0、0.3、0.8、1.3、2.0、3.0、4.0、8.0 MPa）条件下三轴压缩试验。试验结果表明：冻结砂卵石的应力-应变曲线以应变软化形态为主,高负温、高围压条件下,呈现理想塑性破坏形态;砂卵石强度、黏聚力和摩擦角均随温度降低而增大,其中强度呈指数分布,黏聚力和摩擦角呈线性分布;强度和弹性模量随围压增加而增大,但增大趋势逐渐减小,低围压压缩区强度满足线性Morh-Coulomb（简称M-C）准则;冻结砂卵石的破坏形态以破裂面始/终于试样侧面的剪切破坏为代表,张拉型破坏受冰影响显著,仅存在于低围压条件下,高围压、高负温时易出现体胀型破坏。     

Evaluation of shear strength of cohesionless soil due to excess pore water pressure

The shear strength of cohesionless soil is reduced as the water pressure inside the pores of the soil mass increases. The mathematical relationship between the shear strength and the pore water pressure was derived using Mohr–Coulomb failure criteria as a function of the confining pressure and the effective angle of friction. Experimentally, a series of consolidated drained triaxial tests with back pore water pressure was run on samples of saturated uniform dense sand. The tests were conducted at different confining pressures in the range of 100–400 kPa with an increment of 100 kPa. At each level of confining pressure, the tests were repeated at different values of back pore water pressure in the range of 0–100 kPa with an increment of 25 kPa. For each test, the initial applied back pore water pressure was kept constant during the test for comparing the results at the same effective confining pressure. This study concludes that the mathematical relationship gives accurate results at any level of confining pressure and/or pore water pressure as a function of the effective angle of friction that can be evaluated using single consolidated drained triaxial test at zero back pore water pressure.     

冻融循环条件下粗砂岩物理力学性质变化规律

岩体经受自然冻融循环过程后,其物理力学性质的劣化是引起岩石工程灾害的主要原因。借助于MTS815液伺服岩石试验系统对经历不同冻融循环次数的粗砂岩进行三轴压缩试验,研究经历不同冻融循环次数后岩石在不同围压下的强度和变形特性,分析冻融循环次数和围压对岩石强度和变形的影响规律。研究结果表明,在冻融循环次数一定的条件下,随着围压的增加,岩石的三轴抗压强度、弹性模量和峰值轴向应变逐渐增加,表明粗砂岩的破坏逐渐由脆性破坏向塑形破坏变化;在围压相同的情况下,随着冻融循环次数的增加,岩石的三轴抗压强度、弹性模量逐渐减小,峰值应力对应的轴向应变逐渐增加;随着冻融循环次数的增加,粗砂岩的黏聚力均呈指数衰减形式降低,内摩擦角变化很小。      

Influences of loading direction and intermediate principal stress ratio on the initiation of strain localization in cross-anisotropic sand

Since cross-anisotropic sand behaves differently when the loading direction or the stress state changes, the influences of the loading direction and the intermediate principal stress ratio (b = (σ ₂ ? σ ₃)/(σ ₁ ? σ ₃)) on the initiation of strain localization need study. According to the loading angle (angle between the major principal stress direction and the normal of bedding plane), a 3D non-coaxial non-associated elasto-plasticity hardening model was proposed by modifying Lode angle formulation of the Mohr–Coulomb yield function and the stress–dilatancy function. By using bifurcation analysis, the model was used to predict the initiation of strain localization under plane strain and true triaxial conditions. The predictions of the plane strain tests show that the major principal strain at the bifurcation points increases with the loading angle, while the stress ratio decreases with the loading angle. According to the loading angle and the intermediate principal stress ratio, the true triaxial tests were analyzed in three sectors. The stress–strain behavior and the volumetric strain in each sector can be well captured by the proposed model. Strain localization occurs in most b value conditions in all three sectors except for those which are close to triaxial compression condition (b = 0). The difference between the peak shear strength corresponding to the strain localization and the ultimate shear strength corresponding to plastic limit becomes obvious when the b value is near 0.4. The influence of bifurcation on the shear strength becomes weak when the loading direction changes from perpendicular to the bedding plane to parallel. The bifurcation analysis based on the proposed model gives out major principal strain and peak shear strength at the initiation of strain localization; the given results are consistent with experiments.     

冻结粉土三轴压缩变形破坏与能量特征分析

对不同温度和不同围压下的青藏冻结粉土进行了三轴压缩与加卸载试验,得到冻结粉土应力-应变关系曲线、抗压强度等力学参数随温度与围压变化的关系。结果表明,冻结粉土典型应力-应变曲线在低围压下大致可以分为线弹性、峰前塑性变形与峰后软化3个阶段。当? 3 < 3.0 MPa时,应力-应变曲线具有明显的峰后软化现象,随围压的增大,软化现象逐渐减弱,当? 3 达到14 MPa,应变软化现象重新变得明显;冻结粉土的强度与变形模量均随围压的增加先升后降;低围压作用下冻结粉土体积随轴向应变的增加先缩后胀,而高围压下体积变形只有体缩;低围压下冻结粉土体积塑性变形耗散能先是随着体积塑性变形增大而增大,之后由于剪胀而减少,高围压下体积塑性变形耗散能始终增加;剪切塑性变形耗散能与塑性剪应变之间近似成抛物线的关系。     

改性料礓石力学性质试验

改性料礓石作为一种传统硅酸盐建筑材料,可以与修复加固的文物本体很好兼容且牢固结合,现阶段已经运用到文物保护工作中。为研究其全面的力学特性,在前人研究基础上,采用伺服刚性试验机对改性料礓石进行了不同围压下的常规三轴试验、单轴压缩试验及巴西劈裂试验。试验结果表明：材料具有较高的抗压强度和抗拉强度,同时具有韧性特征。在低围压时,试样表现为剪切破坏,当围压超过6 MPa时,试样表现出明显的塑性流动特征,且试样的峰值强度与围压近似线性关系。通过绘制莫尔圆包络线计算出抗剪强度参数c、? 值,并分析了峰值应变、弹性模量和围压的关系。分析改性料礓石结石体的微观结构及固化过程中的化学成分变化,认为水化和碳化产物包裹石英砂颗粒的特殊结构,是材料具备韧性特征的原因。研究结果对改性料礓石的应用及文物修复的现场工作具有重要的意义与价值。     

Resilient and plastic strain behavior of freezing–thawing mucky clay under subway loading in Shanghai

Depending on artificial freezing method applied in subway tunnel construction, a series of stress-controlled cyclic triaxial tests were conducted on freezing–thawing mucky clay to investigate their resilient and plastic strain behavior. In terms of practical engineering, this study focuses on three significant influencing factors which are artificial freezing temperatures, dynamic stress amplitude and loading frequency. This study demonstrates how these influence factors effect on the resilient strain or dynamic elastic modulus and accumulated plastic strain which are crucial to better understanding the strain behavior of freezing–thawing soil. The results indicate that the value of freezing temperature has slight influence on dynamic elastic modulus, but the freeze–thaw action can truly decrease the dynamic elastic modulus of soil, and soil with higher freezing temperature possesses larger accumulated axial strain. Besides, the dynamic elastic modulus decreases remarkably with the increasing of the cyclic stress amplitude, while the accumulated plastic strain behaves adversely. In addition, loading frequency has the least effect compared with other two factors, but lower frequency can generate larger accumulated plastic strain.     

Acoustic emission characteristics of a dry sandy soil subjected to drained triaxial compression

Acoustic emission (AE) technique that is capable of diagnosing the failure process of stressed materials has rarely reported its application to sandy soils subjected to triaxial compression. In this paper, drained triaxial compression tests incorporating with a high-performance AE measurement system were conducted for dry sands with different confining stresses and initial relative densities. Generally, an increased confining stress or initial relative density generates more acoustic emissions, while there also exist exceptions due to different failure patterns. A good resemblance between stress–strain and AE hit rate–strain relations was observed, and power functions between the mechanical parameters and AE hit rate were well established regardless of different confining stresses and initial relative densities. Besides, the behavioral state of yield and peak during compression could be also evaluated by AE hit rate, compared with conventional stress–strain determination. Particularly, the peak AE hit rate is found not always synchronous to but fluctuating at around the peak stress depending on different failure patterns, which might provide beneficial insights into the incipient failure of sands. The present good consistencies suggest that AE characteristics could be used as alternative parameters to evaluate and even predict the mechanical behavior of dry sands.

     

油砂力学及热学性质的试验研究

通过对取自新疆克拉玛依风城油田重油储层的油砂进行室温和高温三轴固结排水压缩试验,研究了油砂基本力学和热学性质。研究结果表明：在常温试验条件下,油砂的偏应力-应变曲线可分为弹性阶段、塑性阶段和软化阶段,高温试验条件下则首先会出现压密阶段,不同围压下的体积应变变化规律显著不同;油砂的弹性模量和泊松比均与固结压力有较好的线性关系;高温对油砂的峰值强度、残余强度、泊松比和弹性模量影响很小;油砂的内摩擦角为34°,大小与粗粒土相近,凝聚力为0.47 MPa;油砂的热膨胀系数随围压的增大而增大,环向膨胀系数远大于轴向膨胀系数;围压?3 =5 MPa时存在临界温度,使得油砂的变形在低于或高于临界温度时表现出不同的特点,当温度小于临界温度时,试件的环向变形、轴向变形、体积变形均随温度的升高线性膨胀;当温度大于临界温度时,试件的环向变形、轴向变形、体积变形均随温度的升高线性收缩。最后将风城油砂的性质与加拿大Athabasca和Cold Lake两处的油砂进行了对比,发现3个地区的油砂在强度、变形等方面有很多相似之处,这对风城重油资源的开采具有重要的指导意义。     

Strength of two structured soils in triaxial compression

Oil sands are dense granular materials with interlocked structure and clay shales are heavily overconsolidated clays. They are classified as structured soil or weak rock, exhibiting high peak strength with severe softening and dilation, particularly at low confining stress. The triaxial compression test results indicate that both materials yield linear Mohr–Coulomb envelopes with an apparent cohesion for peak and residual strengths. However, the strength components mobilized from these two materials are very different. This paper investigates if these strength parameters are intrinsic properties or responses derived in triaxial compression conditions. Computer tomography scanning technique is used to aid in examining the micro‐structural features of the sheared specimens such as shear banding pattern, shear band thickness, spatial porosity distributions inside and outside shear bands. These micro‐structural features are used to explain the macro‐deformation response observed in the triaxial compression tests. Mobilization of strength components derived from interlocked structure, cementation, dilation, rolling and critical state are analysed for pre‐, post‐peak softening and residual stages. It is found that the empirical correlation such as Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion based on triaxial compression test results does not necessarily reflect the intrinsic properties of the test materials. Testing conditions are embedded in the empirical correlation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Poroplastic modelling of the excavation and ventilation of a deep cavity

A plastic deviatoric model with hardening is developed on the basis of geomechanical tests performed in the saturated case on low permeable porous material such as argillite. This model is a generalized Mohr–Coulomb plastic criterion combined with a Drucker–Prager plastic potential and the hardening parameter is the plastic distortion. Three different hardening functions have been introduced on the basis of triaxial tests: an increase of friction angle, a decrease of cohesion after a threshold and a contractancy to dilatancy transition for volumetric plastic strain. This plastic model has been adapted to the partially saturated case. The effective stress is expressed thanks to the equivalent interstitial pressure π. Numerical results are presented for the excavation and monotonous ventilation of a deep cylindrical cavity. A first plastification due to excavation is followed by a second one due to desaturation. The extent of the non-saturated zone provokes an extent of a plastic zone in the rock mass. Analysis shows that the origin of the plastification can be found in the deviatoric stresses because mean effective stresses are compressive during drying. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of the plastic potential on plane strain failure

The influence of the shape of the plastic potential in the deviatoric plane on plane strain collapse is investigated. The most commonly employed elastic‐perfect plastic models are considered, which adopt well‐known failure criteria for defining the yield and plastic potential surfaces, namely the von Mises, the Drucker–Prager, the Tresca, the Mohr–Coulomb and the Matsuoka–Nakai criteria. Finally, the conclusions are also extended to strain hardening/softening models. For simple constitutive models based on perfect plasticity, it is shown that the value of the Lode's angle at plastic collapse in plane strain conditions strongly depends on the specific failure surface adopted for reproducing the plastic potential surface. If the value of the Lode's angle at yield coincides with the failure value prescribed by the plastic potential, the stress–strain curves exhibit the typical perfect plastic behaviour with yield coinciding with failure, otherwise the stress changes after yield and the stress‐strain curves resemble those of strain hardening/softening models. The infinite strength which is in some situations exhibited by the Drucker–Prager model in plane strain condition is investigated and explained, and it is shown that this can also affect strain hardening/softening models. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microplane damage model for jointed rock masses

The paper presents a new microplane constitutive model for the inelastic behavior of jointed rock masses that takes into account the mechanical behavior and geometric characteristics of cracks and joints. The basic idea is that the microplane modeling of rock masses under general triaxial loading, including compression, requires the isotropic rock matrix and the joints to be considered as two distinct phases coupled in parallel. A joint continuity factor is defined as a microplane damage variable to represent the stress‐carrying area fraction of the joint phase. Based on the assumption of parallel coupling between the rock joint and the rock matrix, the overall mechanical behavior of the rock is characterized by microplane constitutive laws for the rock matrix and for the rock joints, along with an evolution law for the microplane joint continuity factor. The inelastic response of the rock matrix and the rock joints is controlled on the microplane level by the stress–strain boundaries. Based on the arguments enunciated in developing the new microplane model M7 for concrete, the previously used volumetric–deviatoric splits of the elastic strains and of the tensile boundary are avoided. The boundaries are tensile normal, compressive normal, and shear. The numerical simulations demonstrate satisfactory fits of published triaxial test data on sandstone and on jointed plaster mortar, including quintessential features such as the strain softening and dilatancy under low confining pressure, as well as the brittle–ductile transition under higher confining pressure, and the decrease of jointed rock strength and Young's modulus with an increasing dip angle of the joint. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐coaxial elasto‐plasticity model and bifurcation prediction of shear banding in sands

Numerous constitutive models built on coaxial theory and validated under axi‐symmetric condition often describe the stress–stain relationships and predict the inceptions of shear banding in sands inaccurately under true triaxial condition. By adopting an elaborated Mohr–Coulomb yield function and using non‐coaxial non‐associated flow rule, a 3D non‐coaxial elasto‐plasticity model is proposed and validated by a series of true triaxial tests on loose sands. The bifurcation analysis of true triaxial tests on dense sands predicts the influence of the intermediate principal stress ratio on the onset of shear band accurately. The failure of soils is shown to be related to the formation of shear band under most intermediate principal stress ratio conditions except for those which are close to the axi‐symmetric compression condition. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Laboratory Investigation of the Influence of Geotextile on the Stress–Strain and Volumetric Change Behavior of Sand

This paper presents the results of triaxial tests conducted for the investigation of the influence of geotextile on both the stress–strain and volumetric change behavior of reinforced sands. Tests were carried out on loose sand. The experimental program includes drained compression tests on samples reinforced with different values of both geotextile layers (1 ≤ Ng ≤ 3) and confining pressure (\(\upsigma_{\text{c}}^{\prime }\)) varying from 50 to 200 kPa. Tests show that the contribution of geotextile is negligible until an axial strain threshold that range between 2.5% for a confining pressure of 50 kPa to lower than 1% for 100 and 200 kPa confining pressure. At higher values of ε_a, geotextile induces a quasi-linear increase in the stress deviator (q) and volume contraction in the reinforced sand. Tests show a negligible influence of the number of geotextile layers (Ng) on the contribution of geotextile to both stress–strain and volumetric change, when normalized with Ng. Tests also show that the contribution of geotextile to the stress–strain mobilization augments with the increase in the confining pressure, while its contribution to the volume contraction decreases with the increase in the confining pressure. The reinforced soil becomes contracting in the case of 2 and 3 geotextile layers.     

Mechanical Behavior of Methane Infiltrated Coal: the Roles of Gas Desorption, Stress Level and Loading Rate

We report laboratory experiments to investigate the role of gas desorption, stress level and loading rate on the mechanical behavior of methane infiltrated coal. Two suites of experiments are carried out. The first suite of experiments is conducted on coal (Lower Kittanning seam, West Virginia) at a confining stress of 2 MPa and methane pore pressures in the fracture of 1 MPa to examine the role of gas desorption. These include three undrained (hydraulically closed) experiments with different pore pressure distributions in the coal, namely, overpressured, normally pressured and underpressured, and one specimen under drained condition. Based on the experimental results, we find quantitative evidence that gas desorption weakens coal through two mechanisms: (1) reducing effective stress controlled by the ratio of gas desorption rate over the drainage rate, and (2) crushing coal due to the internal gas energy release controlled by gas composition, pressure and content. The second suite of experiments is conducted on coal (Upper B seam, Colorado) at confining stresses of 2 and 4 MPa, with pore pressures of 1 and 3 MPa, under underpressured and drained condition with three different loading rates to study the role of stress level and loading rate. We find that the Biot coefficient of coal specimens is <1. Reducing effective confining stress decreases the elastic modulus and strength of coal. This study has important implications for the stability of underground coal seams.