Abstract
The weakening effects of increasing the water content in rocks have been studied extensively in a wide variety of rock types over the past few decades. High energy release is typically characteristic of rock burst hazards. However, few studies have investigated the mechanism of water involved in rock bursts from the perspective of energy distribution based on the water content. Therefore, in this study we investigated the evolution of microcracks in hard sandstone determined from triaxial tests combined with an acoustic emission analysis for different water contents and confining pressures. Then, the weakening effects of water on the brittleness of the rock were studied from an energy viewpoint. The study shows that the capacity of the storage energy of hard rock decreases due to the dissipation of internal elastic energy in the compression stage in the presence of water. These results revealed the mechanical and energetic mechanisms that caused the weakening effects induced by water on rock burst and can contribute to design and construction improvements in tunnel engineering.
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Abbreviations
- K s :
-
Water saturation coefficient
- ω a :
-
Actual water absorption (%)
- ω sa :
-
Water-saturated absorption (%)
- σ 1 :
-
Maximum principal stress (MPa)
- σ 3 :
-
Minimum principal stress (MPa)
- \( {\varepsilon}_i^e \) :
-
Elastic strain corresponding to each principal stress
- E :
-
Young’s modulus (GPa)
- υ :
-
Poisson’s ratio
- \( {\varepsilon}_v^c \) :
-
Crack volumetric strain
- ε v :
-
Volumetric strain
- \( {\varepsilon}_v^e \) :
-
Volumetric strain in the elastic stage
- σ cc :
-
Crack closure stress threshold (MPa)
- σ ci :
-
Crack initiation stress threshold (MPa)
- σ cd :
-
Crack damage stress threshold (MPa)
- σ f :
-
Peak strength (MPa)
- U e :
-
Releasable elastic strain energy of a rock unit (MJ/m3)
- U d :
-
Dissipation energy of a rock unit (MJ/m3)
- E i :
-
Unloading Young’s modulus (GPa)
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No. 41230635 and 41572283. The authors are grateful for the funding from the Science and Technology Office of Sichuan Province (No. 2015JQ0020 and 2017TD0018). This work is also supported by the research fund of the State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (No. SKLGP2016Z005).
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Chen, G., Li, T., Wang, W. et al. Weakening effects of the presence of water on the brittleness of hard sandstone. Bull Eng Geol Environ 78, 1471–1483 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1184-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1184-3