Fatigue Behavior of Granite Subjected to Cyclic Loading Under Triaxial Compression Condition

A series of laboratory tests were performed to examine the fatigue behavior of granite subjected to cyclic loading under triaxial compression condition. In these tests, the influences of volumetric change and residual strain on the deformation modulus of granite under triaxial cyclic compression were investigated. It is shown that the fatigue behavior of granite varies with the tendency for volumetric change in triaxial cyclic compression tests. In the stress–strain space, there are three domains for fatigue behavior of rock subjected to cyclic loading, namely the volumetric compaction, volumetric dilation with strain-hardening behavior, and volumetric dilation with strain-softening behavior domains. In the different domains, the microscopic mechanisms for rock deformation are different. It was also found that the stress level corresponding to the transition from volumetric compaction to volumetric dilation could be considered as the threshold for fatigue failure. The potential of fatigue deformation was compared with that of plastic deformation. The comparison shows that rocks exhibit higher resistances to volumetric deformation under cyclic loading than under plastic loading. The influence of residual strain on the fatigue behavior of rock was also investigated. It was found that the axial residual strain could be a better option to describe the fatigue behavior of rock than the loading cycle number. A constitutive model for the fatigue behavior of rock subjected to cyclic loading is proposed according to the test results and discussion. In the model, the axial residual strain is considered as an internal state variable. The influences of confining pressure and peak deviatoric stress on the deformation modulus are considered in a term named the equivalent stress. Comparison of test results with model predictions shows that the proposed model is capable of describing the prepeak fatigue behavior of rock subjected to cyclic loading.