Experimental Investigation on the Deformation, Strength, and Acoustic Emission Characteristics of Sandstone under True Triaxial Compression

Abstract EN

The study of deformation, strength, and other mechanical characteristics of sandstone under true triaxial compression is significant for understanding failure mechanisms in rock and evaluating the stability of underground structures.

Conventional and true triaxial compression tests for sandstone are conducted for different stress states in this study using the self-developed true triaxial electrohydraulic servo test system combined with acoustic emission (AE) testing.

This study presents an in-depth and systematic investigation of deformation, strength, and AE characteristics.

The results show significant differences in deformation, strength, and acoustic emission characteristics for the rock under conventional triaxial and true triaxial compression tests, respectively.

The peak strength, axial strain, lateral strain, and incremental strain (in unstable crack growth stage) increase with increasing confining pressure under conventional triaxial compression, and the AE count gradually decreases while shear crack proportion gradually increases, indicating that increasing confining pressure gradually inhibits the shear slip effect along fractures, delays perforation of the rock shear fracture surface, and enhances the ability of the rock to withstand deformation and load.

Under true triaxial compression, the peak strength increases and then decreases with increasing intermediate principal stress σ2 and the axial strain ε1 and lateral strain ε2 gradually decrease; besides, the lateral strain (expansion) of the rock is mainly in the minimum principal stress σ3 direction, and lateral expansion tends to decrease before increasing.

AE events first weaken and then enhance with increasing σ2, and the proportion of shear cracks increases first and then decreases, indicating that the confining pressure gradually changes from the shear slip effect that controls crack offset to the damage effect that promotes crack tension with increasing σ2.

In addition, the protective effect of confining pressure improves when σ3 increases.