scholarly journals Effect of Bedding Angle and Confining Pressure on the Brittleness of Geomaterials: A Case Study on Slate

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Xianjie Hao ◽  
Quansheng Xu ◽  
Dequan Yang ◽  
Shaohua Wang ◽  
Yingnan Wei

Brittleness is one of the most significant properties of geomaterials. However, very few studies have been conducted on factors influencing the rock brittleness indices. In this paper, conventional triaxial compression tests were carried out to investigate the effects of confining pressure and bedding angle on the brittleness of slate. From the perspective of energy, brittleness is an index that could reflect the release rate of energy that accumulated in the slate under the effect of external energy after reaching peak strength. Therefore, a new brittleness index of slate based on postpeak energy release is proposed herein. The applicability of this index is illustrated by comparing with other five existing brittleness indices. The following results can be obtained. (1) The confining pressure exerts a great influence on the brittleness of slate. With the increase of confining pressure, the brittleness of slate decreases significantly. The dispersion of brittleness values of slate declines with increasing confining pressure. (2) There is a parabolic relationship between slate brittleness and bedding angle. As bedding angle increases, the brittleness is intensified and reaches its maximum at a bedding angle of about 45° and then decreases gradually. (3) In contrast to the previous indices, the brittleness index proposed in this paper can describe the whole process of the postpeak stage through an index of the energy release, which makes this measure more suitable for rock that has the characteristics of step-drop or bench-drop at the postpeak stage.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingyang Zhai ◽  
Zenglin Wang ◽  
Liaoyuan Zhang ◽  
Aishan Li ◽  
Zilin Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Rock brittleness is a crucial mechanical property and essential for fracability evaluation and fracturing scheme design in unconventional reservoirs. However, the influence of inherent anisotropy on deep laminated sandstone’s mechanical properties and brittleness characteristics is rarely investigated. The energy transformation and damage evolution reflected by complete stress-strain curves are analyzed during the entire process of rock rupture under compressions. A new brittleness index is established based on energy evolution during sandstone failure. Its advantages involve comprehensively considering the energy transformation characteristics at both pre-peak and post-peak stages and the capability to characterize the effect of confining pressure and bedding plane (BP) geometry on sandstone brittleness. The triaxial compression tests on sandstones are conducted to validate the reliability and accuracy of the new brittleness index. Numerical simulations are then performed to further investigate the manner in which BP angle, BP density, and confining pressure control the brittleness anisotropy of deep laminated sandstones based on the finite element method. Then the acoustic emission (AE) characteristics of anisotropic sandstone and correlations between AE mode and brittleness index are discussed. The results indicated that the anisotropy of mechanical properties and brittleness of deep laminated sandstones were significantly affected by BP angle, BP density, and confining pressure. With the increase of BP angle, the brittleness index of deep laminated sandstone decreases first and then increases, showing a U-shape variation law, whose maximum and minimum values are obtained at φ =0° and φ =45°, respectively. The AE characteristics were closely related to rock brittleness, which was jointly controlled by BP geometry and confining pressure. The results provide a basis for the brittleness and fracability evaluation and optimum hydraulic fracturing design in deep laminated sandstones.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Meiben Gao ◽  
Tianbin Li ◽  
Lubo Meng

Recent research shows that the brittleness of rock is closely related to the initiation and propagation of internal microcracks, but there are few brittleness evaluation indices considering the characteristics of rock initiation. Based on the theoretical analysis of brittleness and the characteristics of rock initiation, this study proposes an evaluation method of rock brittleness based on the prepeak crack initiation and postpeak stress drop characteristics. First, based on the description and definition of brittleness by George Tarasov and Potvin et al., the feasibility of an evaluation method based on the prepeak crack initiation and postpeak stress drop is theoretically analyzed. Second, the component Bi representing the prepeak brittleness of rock and component Bii representing the prepeak brittleness of rock are constructed, and the product of the two is the brittleness index BI, representing the prepeak crack initiation and postpeak stress drop. Finally, experimental tests of granite and marble were conducted to evaluate the new index, and the brittleness indices of different methods are calculated and compared. The results show that, like other brittleness indices (B1∼B5), the brittleness index BI can effectively reflect the effects of different confining pressures and loading modes on rock brittleness. The brittleness of marble decreases with increasing confining pressure from 5 MPa to 35 MPa. At a confining pressure of 5 MPa, the brittleness of granite during a triaxial unloading test is greater than that during a triaxial compression test. The calculated results are consistent with the experimental results. By tests and comparison results, the reliability of this evaluation method was verified, which provides a way to evaluate rock brittleness from the perspective of crack initiation and is helpful to enrich the analysis and evaluation of rock brittleness in the laboratory.


Lithosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (Special 4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenyang Liu ◽  
Lizhi Du ◽  
Xiaopei Zhang ◽  
Yong Wang ◽  
Xinmin Hu ◽  
...  

Abstract Brittleness is a crucial parameter of rock mass and the key indicator in rock engineerings, such as rockburst prediction, tunnelling machine borehole drilling, and hydraulic fracturing. To solve the problem of using present brittleness indexes, the existing rock brittleness indexes were firstly summarised in this paper. Then, a brittleness index (BL), which considers the ratio of stress drop rate and stress increase rate and the peak stress, was proposed. This new index has the advantage of simplifying the acquisition of key parameters and avoiding dimensional problems, as well as taking the complete stress-strain curves into account. While applying the BL, the peak strain is used to describe the difficulty of brittle failure before the peak point, and the ratio of stress drop to strain increase can reflect the stress drop rate without dimension problem. In order to verify the applicability of BL, through the PFC2D, the microparameters and confining pressure were changed to model different types of rock numerical specimens and different stress condition. The results show that the BL can well reflect and classify the brittleness characteristics of different rock types and characterise the constraint of confining pressure on rock brittleness. Moreover, the influence of microparameter on macroparameter was studied. In order to further verify the reliability of the brittleness index (BL), this study conducted uniaxial and triaxial compression tests (30 MPa) on marble, sandstone, limestone, and granite under different confining pressure.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1943
Author(s):  
Fu Yi ◽  
Changbo Du

To evaluate the shear properties of geotextile-reinforced tailings, triaxial compression tests were performed on geogrids and geotextiles with zero, one, two, and four reinforced layers. The stress–strain characteristics and reinforcement effects of the reinforced tailings with different layers were analyzed. According to the test results, the geogrid stress–strain curves show hardening characteristics, whereas the geotextile stress–strain curves have strain-softening properties. With more reinforced layers, the hardening or softening characteristics become more prominent. We demonstrate that the stress–strain curves of geogrids and geotextile reinforced tailings under different reinforced layers can be fitted by the Duncan–Zhang model, which indicates that the pseudo-cohesion of shear strength index increases linearly whereas the friction angle remains primarily unchanged with the increase in reinforced layers. In addition, we observed that, although the strength of the reinforced tailings increases substantially, the reinforcement effect is more significant at a low confining pressure than at a high confining pressure. On the contrary, the triaxial specimen strength decreases with the increase in the number of reinforced layers. Our findings can provide valuable input toward the design and application of reinforced engineering.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3414
Author(s):  
Chaojun Jia ◽  
Qiang Zhang ◽  
Susheng Wang

The mechanical behavior of the sandstone at the dam site is important to the stability of the hydropower station to be built in Southwest China. A series of triaxial compression tests under different confining pressures were conducted in the laboratory. The critical stresses were determined and the relationship between the critical stress and confining pressure were analyzed. The Young’s modulus increases non-linearly with the confining pressure while the plastic strain increment Nϕ and the dilation angle ϕ showed a negative response. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) tests showed that the failure of the sandstone under compression is a coupled process of crack growth and frictional sliding. Based on the experimental results, a coupled elastoplastic damage model was proposed within the irreversible thermodynamic framework. The plastic deformation and damage evolution were described by using the micromechanical homogenization method. The plastic flow is inherently driven by the damage evolution. Furthermore, a numerical integration algorithm was developed to simulate the coupled elastoplastic damage behavior of sandstone. The main inelastic properties of the sandstone were well captured. The model will be implemented into the finite element method (FEM) to estimate the excavation damaged zones (EDZs) which can provide a reference for the design and construction of such a huge hydropower project.


1992 ◽  
Vol 38 (128) ◽  
pp. 65-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Kalifa ◽  
G. Ouillon ◽  
P. Duval

AbstractTriaxial and uniaxial compression tests have been carried out at –10°C on granular ice in order to study the role of microcracking on failure in the ductile-brittle transition zone. In the triaxial tests, the effect of confining pressure and strain rate on the crack population, as well as on strength and strain at the peak stress, was investigated. In the uniaxial tests, we measured the evolution of elastic and non-elastic components of deformation with the stress-strain history. The concept of effective stress, with a single scalar damage variable, was used to calculate the effect of microcracking on the strain components.


1994 ◽  
Vol 353 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Umedera ◽  
A. Fujiwara ◽  
N. Yasufuku ◽  
M. Hyodo ◽  
H. Murata

AbstractA series of triaxial compression tests is being conducted under the drained condition on bentonite and sand mixtures, known as buffer, in saturated and optimum water content states to clarify the mechanical properties of the buffer.It was found that the mechanical properties of bentonite and sand mixtures are strongly influenced by water and bentonite contents: shear strength in a saturated state is less than that in an optimum water content state; shear strength decreases rapidly with increasing bentonite content. Strength properties are much dependent on confining pressure.


2013 ◽  
Vol 405-408 ◽  
pp. 63-67
Author(s):  
Xing Chen Wang ◽  
Ri Qing Xu ◽  
Jian Feng Zhu

A series of drained triaxial compression tests under different conditions were performed to quantitatively study the influence of the initial void ratio and plasticity index on the shear strength of remolded saturated clays. The test results show that both the peak stress friction angle and peak deviatoric stress decrease with increasing initial void ratio and plasticity index of the soil under the same confining pressure; whereas, they increase with increasing confining pressure of the soil under the same initial void ratio and plasticity index. A new synthesized physical parameter λ, which simultaneously represent both the type and the condition of remolded saturated clays, is defined based on the test results in this work. The functional relationships among the parameters φd and peak deviatoric stress in Mohr-Coulomb equation and the parameter λ are established to develop a modified Mohr-Coulomb equation by considering physical properties of soil. In this equation, only two input parameters, i.e., λ and the confine pressure, are needed to predict the shear strength of the soil. In order to check the accuracy of the proposed equation, laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate against the predicted results. The results show that the peak shear strength of remolded saturated clays can be well described by the proposed equation. Key words: shear strength; Mohr-Coulomb equation; remolded saturated clays; initial void ratio; plasticity index.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3 Part A) ◽  
pp. 1521-1527
Author(s):  
Hui-Jun Lu ◽  
Dong-Feng Hu ◽  
Ru Zhang ◽  
Cun-Bao Li ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
...  

Triaxial compression tests are conducted on Longmaxi shale under high temperature and high confining pressure condition corresponding to a depth of 3000 m for two typical bedding plane orientations (0? and 90?). It is found that the crack initiation stresses and crack damage stresses of the Longmaxi shale specimens with different vein orientations are different, reflecting that the inclination of the bedding plane has a non-negligible influence on the microcrack initiation and propagation. In addition, the brittleness index of the Longmaxi shale with a bedding plane orientation of 90? is greater than that with an orientation of 0?, which confirmed that the brittleness index is related to the structural orientation under a high temperature and high confining pressure condition. Concerning the failure patterns, both the shear and tensile fracture modes has been observed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1200 (1) ◽  
pp. 012030
Author(s):  
Tigo Mindiastiwi ◽  
Po-Kai Wu ◽  
Agus Bambang Siswanto ◽  
Mukhamad Afif Salim

Abstract Laboratory triaxial compression tests were carried out to investigate the mechanical behavior of dense sand and geogrid-reinforced granular soils. The tested sand having its mean particle size (D50) equal to 0.6 mm was adopted. Three geogrids with different longitudinal and transverse nominal strengths were used. The dimensions of the cylindrical soil specimen were 70 mm (diameter) × 160 mm (height). The relative density was equal to 70% for all tests. The reinforced sand specimens with one or two geogrid layers were sheared under effective confining pressures (σ′3) equal to 50 kPa. The test results of unreinforced sand indicate the general stress-strain behavior of dense sand when sheared, whereas the deviatoric stress reaches its peak value, after which it gradually decreases to ultimate value (σ1 - σ3)ult. The difference of effective confining pressure indicates that the peak of deviatoric stress Δσd = (σ1 - σ3) increases with the increase in effective confining pressure (σ′3), while the peak principal stress ratio (σ′1/σ′3) decreases with the increase (σ′3). The friction angle (ϕ′)and cohesion (c′), defined by analytical and graphical methods for unreinforced sand. Geogrid as reinforcement increasing peak shear strength. The increasing peak shear strength is more pronounced with a higher number of geogrid and the geogrid with higher stiffness. Increased in confining stress inside reinforced soil mass (Δσ3R) can be interpreted by cohesive reinforced soil (CR).


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