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.     

岩石材料内部特征尺度对裂纹扩展机制的影响

为考察岩石材料细观结构特征对于裂纹扩展机制的影响,首先借助偏光显微镜和SEM观测了3类岩石材料中材料内部组织结构,分析了各自非均质程度和晶粒大小关系。之后,对3类岩石的带I型初始裂纹的3点弯曲试样进行了落重冲击试验,同时采用高速摄影获得了不同裂纹速度下的裂纹扩展形态。将这些结果对照分析,研究了3类岩石中裂纹扩展过程与各自材料组织结构的非均质程度和晶粒大小的关系,得出初步结论：组织结构内部特征尺度越大,动态裂纹所能达到的终极速度就相对越小。反之亦然。