Permeability Evolution and Rock Brittle Failure

This paper reports an experimental study of the evolution of permeability during rock brittle failure and a theoretical analysis of rock critical stress level. It is assumed that the rock is a strain-softening medium whose strength can be described by Weibull’s distribution. Based on the two-dimensional renormalization group theory, it is found that the stress level λ_c (the ratio of the stress at the critical point to the peak stress) depends mainly on the homogeneity index or shape parameter m in the Weibull’s distribution for the rock. Experimental results show that the evolution of permeability is closely related to rock deformation stages: the permeability has a rapid increase with the growth of cracks and their surface areas (i.e., onset of fracture coalescence point), and reaches the maximum at rock failure. Both the experimental and analytical results show that this point of rapid increase in permeability on the permeability-pressure curve corresponds to the critical point on the stress-strain curve; for rock compression, the stress at this point is approximately 80% of the peak strength. Thus, monitoring the evolution of permeability may provide a new means of identifying the critical point of rock brittle fracture.