Rheological Properties of Argillaceous Intercalation under the Combination of Static and Intermittent Dynamic Shear Loads

The construction and long-term operation stage of the rock slope with argillaceous interlayer will be subjected to intermittent dynamic loads, such as blasting and earthquake. For the argillaceous interlayer in the rock slope, its rheological properties are not only related to the initial stress state caused by the gravity of the overlying rock mass but also affected by intermittent dynamic loads. In order to investigate the rheological properties of argillaceous intercalation under the combination of static and intermittent dynamic shear loads, the rheological tests of argillic intercalated soil samples under static shear, static and cyclic dynamic shear, and static and intermittent dynamic shear were carried out, and the rheological deformation characteristics of soil samples under different shear conditions were analyzed. The results show that when the soil specimens in the static shear rheological process are disturbed by intermittent dynamic shearing load, the intermittent dynamic disturbances might have no remarkable influence on the rheological deformation of the specimens if the initial static shearing stress and intermittent dynamic shearing stress were comparatively low. However, low-intensity intermittent dynamic disturbances might accelerate the rheological deformation process of the specimens remarkably if the initial static shearing stress state was close to their shearing strength. There was a stress threshold when the soil specimens failed under the static and cycling dynamic shear and static and intermittent dynamic shear, which is determined by the sum of static shear stress and dynamic shear stress peak. For rock slopes controlled by rheological weak structural planes and influenced by long-term blasting vibrations, the transient and long-term dynamic stability should be comprehensively analyzed.

Unveiling Temporal Nonlinear Structure–Rheology Relationships under Dynamic Shearing

Understanding how microscopic rearrangements manifest in macroscopic flow responses is one of the central goals of nonlinear rheological studies. Using the sequence-of-physical-processes framework, we present a natural 3D structure–rheology space that temporally correlates the structural and nonlinear viscoelastic parameters. Exploiting the rheo-small-angle neutron scattering (rheo-SANS) techniques, we demonstrate the use of the framework with a model system of polymer-like micelles (PLMs), where we unveil a sequence of microscopic events that micelles experience under dynamic shearing across a range of frequencies. The least-aligned state of the PLMs is observed to migrate from the total strain extreme toward zero strain with increasing frequency. Our proposed 3D space is generic, and can be equally applied to other soft materials under any sort of deformation, such as startup shear or uniaxial extension. This work therefore provides a natural approach for researchers to study complex out-of-equilibrium structure–rheology relationships of soft materials.