Experimental study on dynamic mechanical behavior of frozen sandstone with different saturations

Water content is one of the critical factors affecting frost damage to rock masses in alpine regions. A dynamic disturbance load further complicates the issue. In this study, the effects of saturation and impact loading on the dynamic behavior of the frozen red sandstone were investigated using a low-temperature split Hopkinson pressure bar (LT-SHPB) experimental system. By combining low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the dynamic evolution of the microstructure of the frozen sandstone due to changes in saturation was investigated. The experimental results show that the increase in saturation reshapes the pore structure of the frozen sandstone and promotes the expansion of pores of different sizes during freezing, while the frozen samples at complete saturation are mainly developed with mesopore and macropore. The dynamic strength, elastic modulus and brittleness index of the frozen sandstone under impact loading, which are limited by the critical saturation Src, tend to increase and then decrease with saturation increase. In contrast, the ultimate deformation capacity of the frozen sandstone showed an opposite trend with saturation. With increasing impact loading, the dynamic strength, elastic modulus, and peak strain of the frozen sandstone gradually increase, showing an obvious strain-rate enhancement effect; while the brittleness index decreases by 8.1% at full saturation when the impact velocity increases from 4 m/s to 6 m/s, indicating that the dynamic damage mode develops from brittle to ductile. Moreover, the frozen samples changed from tensile damage to composite damage with increasing saturation and impact loading; the distribution of crushing masses remained closely related to their dynamic strength. Based on the experimental results, the mechanism of the effects of saturation variation on the dynamic mechanical behavior of frozen sandstone is discussed

Effects of Accumulated Damage on the Dynamic Properties of Coal Measures Sandstone

The coupling effect of accumulated damage and impact load substantially affects the integrity of the surrounding rock structure in deep coal mining engineering, which has inhibited safe and effective coal mining. Therefore, dynamic compression tests were performed on coal measures sandstone specimens with accumulated damage using the SHPB device. The effects of a high strain rate and accumulated damage on the sandstone’s mechanical behavior and damage evolution were investigated. The results reveal that accumulated damage has a considerable impact on specimen stress–strain curves and lowers dynamic compressive strength and deformation modulus substantially. The sandstone failure mode looks to be shear failure from a macroscopic perspective, while it appears to be intergranular fracture between the mineral particles from a microscopic perspective. The macroscopic and microscopic failure mechanisms of the sandstone specimens likewise conformed to the energy absorption law. The accumulated damage factor and the accumulated damage correction coefficient were presented in order to construct a statistical damage constitutive model of rocks based on the Weibull distribution. This model provides a decent description of the effects of accumulated damage and the strain rate on sandstone’s mechanical behavior, with parameters that are all of evident physical significance

Infinitely Many High Energy Solutions for Kirchhoff-Schrödinger-Poisson Equation with 4-Superlinear Growth Condition

In this article we study the following nonlinear problem of Kirchhoff-Schrödinger-Poisson equation with pure power nonlinearity where a,b and V are positive constants, and 3<p<5. Using the fountain theorem, we obtain infinitely many high energy radial solutions, where some new tricks associated with the scaling technique are introduced to overcome the difficulty caused by the combination of two nonlocal terms

Effect of Freeze-Thaw Damage on the Physical, Mechanical, and Acoustic Behavior of Sandstone in Urumqi

The Urumqi area in China is a seasonally cold region, and the rock structures in the region are susceptible to freeze-thaw (F-T) weathering. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of F-T on the physical, mechanical, and fracture behavior of sandstone from Urumqi. The acoustic emission method (AE) was used to determine the stress thresholds for the initiation and development of cracks in the samples under cyclic F-T action. The results suggested that parameters such as P-wave velocity, elastic modulus, and peak stress presented a significant negative correlation with F-T damage, while porosity exhibited a close positive correlation. The elastic modulus of the sample was more sensitive to the F-T action with the smallest half-life (27 cycles) and the largest decay factor (0.0254). In addition, the stress threshold for micro-cracks development and macro-cracks initiation in the samples decreased with increasing F-T damage. After 30 F-T cycles, the stress threshold for micro-cracks propagation in the samples decreased from 20.73 MPa to 5.02 MPa by approximately 76%. The normalized stress threshold for the macro-cracks initiation was also decreased from 0.93 to 0.71. Moreover, the macro-cracks damage zone of the samples showed an increasing trend with F-T damage, from 7% under natural conditions to 29% after 30 cycles. It is concluded that F-T action lowers the stress thresholds for cracks development in sandstone in the Urumqi area, posing serious safety concerns for mass rock engineering in this area

Full-Field Deformation and Crack Development Evolution of Red Sandstone under Impact and Chemical Erosion

Coal mine reuse involves complex environments such as chemical erosion and dynamic perturbation. Therefore, the effect of chemical erosion on the dynamic behavior of the red sandstone was studied by split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) tests under the strain rates of 70~125 s−1. The full-field deformation of the sample was then recorded through high-speed 3D digital image correlation (3D-DIC) technique. The dynamic deformation characteristics, especially the lateral strain, were extracted by averaging the lateral strain field by pixels. Also, the fracture behavior was investigated based on the evolution of strain localization in the strain field. The results indicated that the deformation field evolution of the sample is controlled by the chemical erosion effect and the loading strain rate. The chemical erosion lowers the stress threshold for strain localization and accelerates its expansion rate, which is closely related to the dynamic strength degradation of the sample. In contrast, the loading strain rate increases the dynamic strength but advances the occurrence of strain localization and shortens the time to the peak stress. The normalized stress thresholds for the initiation and development of cracks inside the sample under dynamic loading are reduced by chemical erosion, with the two thresholds dropping to 10%~30% and 20%~70% of the peak stress, respectively. The minimum thresholds for the initiation and development of cracks inside the red sandstone under dynamic loading are 11% and 24% of the peak stress, respectively

Influence of Microstructure on Dynamic Mechanical Behavior and Damage Evolution of Frozen–Thawed Sandstone Using Computed Tomography

Frost-induced microstructure degradation of rocks is one of the main reasons for the changes in their dynamic mechanical behavior in cold environments. To this end, computed tomography (CT) was performed to quantify the changes in the microstructure of yellow sandstone after freeze–thaw (F–T) action. On this basis, the influence of the microscopic parameters on the dynamic mechanical behavior was studied. The results showed that the strain rate enhanced the dynamic mechanical properties, but the F–T-induced decrease in strength and elastic modulus increased with increasing strain rate. After 40 F–T cycles, the dynamic strength of the samples increased by 41% to 75.6 MPa when the strain rate was increased from 75 to 115 s−1, which is 2.5 times the static strength. Moreover, the dynamic strength and elastic modulus of the sample were linearly and negatively correlated with the fractal dimension and porosity, with the largest decrease rate at 115 s−1, indicating that the microscopic parameters have a crucial influence on dynamic mechanical behavior. When the fractal dimension was increased from 2.56 to 2.67, the dynamic peak strength of the samples under the three impact loads decreased by 43.7 MPa (75 s), 61.8 MPa (95 s), and 71.4 MPa (115 s), respectively. In addition, a damage evolution model under F–T and impact loading was developed considering porosity variation. It was found that the damage development in the sample was highly related to the strain rate and F–T damage. As the strain rate increases, the strain required for damage development gradually decreases with a lower increase rate. In contrast, the strain required for damage development in the sample increases with increasing F–T damage. The research results can be a reference for constructing and maintaining rock structures in cold regions

Effect of Freeze-Thaw Damage on the Physical, Mechanical, and Acoustic Behavior of Sandstone in Urumqi

The Urumqi area in China is a seasonally cold region, and the rock structures in the region are susceptible to freeze-thaw (F-T) weathering. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of F-T on the physical, mechanical, and fracture behavior of sandstone from Urumqi. The acoustic emission method (AE) was used to determine the stress thresholds for the initiation and development of cracks in the samples under cyclic F-T action. The results suggested that parameters such as P-wave velocity, elastic modulus, and peak stress presented a significant negative correlation with F-T damage, while porosity exhibited a close positive correlation. The elastic modulus of the sample was more sensitive to the F-T action with the smallest half-life (27 cycles) and the largest decay factor (0.0254). In addition, the stress threshold for micro-cracks development and macro-cracks initiation in the samples decreased with increasing F-T damage. After 30 F-T cycles, the stress threshold for micro-cracks propagation in the samples decreased from 20.73 MPa to 5.02 MPa by approximately 76%. The normalized stress threshold for the macro-cracks initiation was also decreased from 0.93 to 0.71. Moreover, the macro-cracks damage zone of the samples showed an increasing trend with F-T damage, from 7% under natural conditions to 29% after 30 cycles. It is concluded that F-T action lowers the stress thresholds for cracks development in sandstone in the Urumqi area, posing serious safety concerns for mass rock engineering in this area

Experimental Study on the Effect of Brittleness on the Dynamic Mechanical Behaviors of the Coal Measures Sandstone

As one of the most crucial mechanical parameters of the rock materials, the effect of brittleness on the deformation and failure is of great practical significance for geotechnical construction and disaster prevention and mitigation. In this paper, the deformation and failure behaviors of the different brittle samples under dynamic loading were investigated using a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) experimental system. Besides, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also employed to study the relationship between the microscopic failures and rock brittleness and strain rate effects. The results revealed that the brittleness indexes BI3 and BI5 of the samples under uniaxial compression follow a linearly decreasing trend affected by the temperature changes, while the brittleness of the sample shows an increasing trend with the increase of strain rate under the dynamic loading. Also, the decline in the brittleness leads to an increase in the prepeak yield deformation phase of the sample under dynamic loading; after the peak point, the sample failure mode transitions from type I to type II with self-sustaining failure. Moreover, it was found that the dynamic strength increase factor presents a negative correlation with the sample brittleness. Finally, the macroscopic failure mode of the sample changes from split failure with multiple cracks to shear failure with few cracks due to the effect of decreasing brittleness. The failure surface of the sample gradually becomes smooth with the increase of brittleness, which manifests as a decrease in microcracks, and the gradual increase of the strain rate makes the failure surface rough, accompanied by an increase in microcracks

Dynamic Deformation and Failure Characteristics of Deep Underground Coal Measures Sandstone: The Influence of Accumulated Damage

Understanding accumulated damage effects is essential when undertaking deep underground rock engineering, as complex in situ environments and intense engineering disturbances realistically affect the physical and mechanical properties of rocks. Accumulated damage mainly causes the extension of micro-cracks and the sprouting of specific defects in the rocks, altering the microstructural parameters. In this investigation, loading and unloading tests were used to simulate the damage states of the deep underground coal measures sandstone. The accumulated damage factor was formed by combining the P-wave and energy damage variables. The effect of accumulated damage on the bearing capacity and deformation behavior of sandstone was particularly pronounced after experiencing impact loading. The experimental results demonstrate that the accumulated damage factor can depict the initial damage state of sandstone as well as the subsequent dynamic and progressive damage. There is a mutually governing effect between accumulated damage and strain rate. In contrast, accumulated damage significantly extends the range of strain rates, which is fed back into the dynamic uniaxial compressive strength of the sandstone. There is a negative correlation between dynamic fracture energy and accumulated damage, which strongly agrees with the sandstone’s deformation mechanism. The combination of accumulated damage and impact loads can be used to assess the long-term safety of deep underground rock engineering

Experimental Study on Sand Inrush Hazard of Water-Sand Two-Phase Flow in Broken Rock Mass

In the western region of China, coal mining activities are prone to induce water and sand inrush disasters, which seriously threaten the safe production of the coal resources. In this paper, an experimental device was designed to simulate the process of water and sand inrush, and then, the control factors of the disasters in the broken rock mass in the goaf were investigated. Also, the seepage fracture channels in the broken rock mass were simplified by using the 3D printing technology, and the effects of fracture aperture and angle on the seepage characteristics of water-sand mixtures were analyzed. The experimental results showed that the porosity and skeleton structure of the broken rock mass were the key factors to control the water and sand inrush disasters. The smaller the initial porosity of the broken rock mass, the weaker its permeability, and the less probable to form a dominant channel for the water and sand inrush disasters. Conversely, the broken rock mass structure with larger size gradation was more likely to form the permeable channels, and the quality of the sand inrush was greater. In addition, it was also found that the angle of the fractures within the broken rock mass affected the seepage characteristics of water-sand mixture, and the permeability showed an exponential relationship with the fracture angle. Meanwhile, as the fracture aperture increased, the fracture angle generated greater influence on the permeability. Finally, we proposed the water and sand inrush prevention and control technology based on the experiment results. The results of this study can provide a reference for the control of water and sand inrush disasters in western China