Numerical Experimental Investigations of the Effect of Confining Pressure Unloading Rate on Sandstone Mechanical Properties

Purposes This work is conducted to exclude the superimposed effect of natural rock specimen discreteness and multiple stress path conversion in test process on results, and to further investigate the influence mechanism of the confining pressure unloading rate on rock failure and instability. Method...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jian ZHANG, Liangliang GUO
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Editorial Office of Journal of Taiyuan University of Technology 2023-07-01
Series:Taiyuan Ligong Daxue xuebao
Subjects:
Online Access:https://tyutjournal.tyut.edu.cn/englishpaper/show-2098.html
_version_ 1797208325831524352
author Jian ZHANG
Liangliang GUO
author_facet Jian ZHANG
Liangliang GUO
author_sort Jian ZHANG
collection DOAJ
description Purposes This work is conducted to exclude the superimposed effect of natural rock specimen discreteness and multiple stress path conversion in test process on results, and to further investigate the influence mechanism of the confining pressure unloading rate on rock failure and instability. Methods The discrete element method was used to carry out homogeneous numerical specimens under constant axial pressure and two fixed confining pressure unloading rates. The macroscopic and mesoscopic mechanical properties and laws of the specimens under two confining pressure unloading rates are compared and discussed. Findings The results show that the macroscopic and mesoscopic fracture distributions have certain similarity and regularity under the two conditions, the load-bearing strength of the specimen in slow confining pressure unloading rate is higher than that in fast condition, and the local fracture distribution density at the fast unloading condition is relatively larger. The axial and confining pressure “falls” and “rises” during the two unloading rate tests, which reflects that the specimens have undergone a multi-stage sudden and progressive failure process. The continuous accumulation of local damage leads to the overall instability of the specimens. The number of tensile fractures under the two unloading rates is significantly larger than that of shear fractures, and the growth rate of tensile fractures is greater than that of shear fractures. The slow unloading condition relatively fully mobilized the local bearing capacity of the specimen and improved the ultimate bearing capacity of the specimen. Conclusions Under the two conditions, the distribution of fractures composed of more than 20 AE events is the most uneven. With the increase of AE event numbers creating each fracture, the overall seismic magnitude increases gradually, and the overall energy release during the fast unloading process to form fractures becomes relatively higher, while slow unloading transfers stress at a relatively slow rate, resulting in a relatively lower, smooths, and uniform energy release during fracture formation.
first_indexed 2024-04-24T09:37:01Z
format Article
id doaj.art-ed522c85c2144740a8888667b27ad491
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1007-9432
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-24T09:37:01Z
publishDate 2023-07-01
publisher Editorial Office of Journal of Taiyuan University of Technology
record_format Article
series Taiyuan Ligong Daxue xuebao
spelling doaj.art-ed522c85c2144740a8888667b27ad4912024-04-15T09:16:50ZengEditorial Office of Journal of Taiyuan University of TechnologyTaiyuan Ligong Daxue xuebao1007-94322023-07-0154470070910.16355/j.cnki.issn1007-9432tyut.2023.04.0141007-9432(2023)04-0700-10Numerical Experimental Investigations of the Effect of Confining Pressure Unloading Rate on Sandstone Mechanical PropertiesJian ZHANG0Liangliang GUO1Shanxi Institute of Geological Survey Co., Ltd., Taiyuan 030006, ChinaCollege of Water Resources Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, ChinaPurposes This work is conducted to exclude the superimposed effect of natural rock specimen discreteness and multiple stress path conversion in test process on results, and to further investigate the influence mechanism of the confining pressure unloading rate on rock failure and instability. Methods The discrete element method was used to carry out homogeneous numerical specimens under constant axial pressure and two fixed confining pressure unloading rates. The macroscopic and mesoscopic mechanical properties and laws of the specimens under two confining pressure unloading rates are compared and discussed. Findings The results show that the macroscopic and mesoscopic fracture distributions have certain similarity and regularity under the two conditions, the load-bearing strength of the specimen in slow confining pressure unloading rate is higher than that in fast condition, and the local fracture distribution density at the fast unloading condition is relatively larger. The axial and confining pressure “falls” and “rises” during the two unloading rate tests, which reflects that the specimens have undergone a multi-stage sudden and progressive failure process. The continuous accumulation of local damage leads to the overall instability of the specimens. The number of tensile fractures under the two unloading rates is significantly larger than that of shear fractures, and the growth rate of tensile fractures is greater than that of shear fractures. The slow unloading condition relatively fully mobilized the local bearing capacity of the specimen and improved the ultimate bearing capacity of the specimen. Conclusions Under the two conditions, the distribution of fractures composed of more than 20 AE events is the most uneven. With the increase of AE event numbers creating each fracture, the overall seismic magnitude increases gradually, and the overall energy release during the fast unloading process to form fractures becomes relatively higher, while slow unloading transfers stress at a relatively slow rate, resulting in a relatively lower, smooths, and uniform energy release during fracture formation.https://tyutjournal.tyut.edu.cn/englishpaper/show-2098.htmlconfining pressure unloading ratenumerical experimentmechanical propertiesdiscrete element methodsandstone
spellingShingle Jian ZHANG
Liangliang GUO
Numerical Experimental Investigations of the Effect of Confining Pressure Unloading Rate on Sandstone Mechanical Properties
Taiyuan Ligong Daxue xuebao
confining pressure unloading rate
numerical experiment
mechanical properties
discrete element method
sandstone
title Numerical Experimental Investigations of the Effect of Confining Pressure Unloading Rate on Sandstone Mechanical Properties
title_full Numerical Experimental Investigations of the Effect of Confining Pressure Unloading Rate on Sandstone Mechanical Properties
title_fullStr Numerical Experimental Investigations of the Effect of Confining Pressure Unloading Rate on Sandstone Mechanical Properties
title_full_unstemmed Numerical Experimental Investigations of the Effect of Confining Pressure Unloading Rate on Sandstone Mechanical Properties
title_short Numerical Experimental Investigations of the Effect of Confining Pressure Unloading Rate on Sandstone Mechanical Properties
title_sort numerical experimental investigations of the effect of confining pressure unloading rate on sandstone mechanical properties
topic confining pressure unloading rate
numerical experiment
mechanical properties
discrete element method
sandstone
url https://tyutjournal.tyut.edu.cn/englishpaper/show-2098.html
work_keys_str_mv AT jianzhang numericalexperimentalinvestigationsoftheeffectofconfiningpressureunloadingrateonsandstonemechanicalproperties
AT liangliangguo numericalexperimentalinvestigationsoftheeffectofconfiningpressureunloadingrateonsandstonemechanicalproperties