Effect of water on sandstone's fracture toughness and frictional parameters: Brittle strength constraints

Noël, Corentin; Baud, Patrick; Violay, Marie

doi:10.1016/j.ijrmms.2021.104916

Cited by 30 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…This would not occur in uniaxial compressive strength tests because the pore water is not pressurized. Similar effects of pore water have been documented in crystalline silicate rocks (Hadizadeh & Law, 1991;Wang et al, 2013), but sandstones more consistently exhibit water weakening of the peak strength (Baud, Schubnel, & Wong, 2000;Hadizadeh & Law, 1991;Noël, Baud, & Violay, 2021). The water-weakening behavior of silicate rocks may be explained by the anticipated differences in the permeability and fracture geometry of these rocks supporting the hypothesis that crack tips either remain dry or have reduced pore pressure over the time scale of fracture propagation.…”

Section: Brittle Deformationsupporting

confidence: 61%

Thermally Enhanced Water Weakening of the Solnhofen Limestone

et al. 2022

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We report the strength and deformation behavior of Solnhofen limestone across its brittle (localized) to ductile (distributed) transition. We conducted conventional triaxial compression tests on water‐saturated and nominally dry cores of Solnhofen at temperatures up to 200°C and effective confining pressures up to 350 MPa to evaluate the roles of pore water and temperature on the deformation mechanisms of low‐porosity limestone at conditions of the upper crust. The combined effects of water and temperature on deformation and strength of the limestone are complex and reflect the concurrent operation of microfracturing, which is enhanced by both pore water and temperature, crystal plasticity, which is enhanced by temperature but not pore water, and likely also dissolution which is enhanced by water but inhibited by temperature. At ambient temperature, water causes a small reduction in the yield strength and the strength in the ductile field, but has no measurable effect of the brittle peak strength or the effective pressure of the brittle to ductile transition. At elevated temperatures, water‐saturated Solnhofen exhibits weakening in both the brittle and ductile fields up to 200 MPa effective pressure. In addition, the combined effects of pore water and temperature reduce the pressure of the brittle to ductile transition dramatically. We propose that under dry conditions temperature reduces the pressure of the brittle to ductile transition by enhancing crystal plasticity and under water‐saturated conditions enhanced microcracking is responsible. At effective pressures greater than 200 MPa, ductile deformation becomes temperature strengthening indicating the onset of dissolution mediated deformation.

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Section: Brittle Deformationsupporting

confidence: 61%

Thermally Enhanced Water Weakening of the Solnhofen Limestone

et al. 2022

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“…The fracture toughness was dependent on the water vapor pressure in the surrounding environment, and decreased with increasing water vapor pressure. Noël et al [10] presented the fracture toughness values of five sandstones under dry and water-saturated conditions. It was demonstrated that water saturation triggered a reduction in fracture toughness, ranging from 6% to 35%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Degradation of Fracture Characteristics on Coconino Sandstone Due to Water Content

2023

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

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The water content of a rock affects its fracture characteristics, such as strength and fracture toughness. In this study, the effect of water content on the fracture characteristics, such as strength, fracture toughness and subcritical crack growth index under shear loading for Coconino sandstone was investigated. Here, experiments were conducted in two cases: completely dry and fully saturated. In particular, a short-beam compression specimen was employed to examine the fracture characteristics due to shear; in addition, the shear strength, mode II fracture toughness, and subcritical crack growth index under shear stress were obtained. Consequently, the shear strength and mode II fracture toughness decreased as the water content increased; however, the subcritical crack growth index remained almost the same without significant alterations. The effect of water on the strength reduction of rocks is related to chemical and physical corrosion, pore pressure increase, and frictional reduction. Previous investigations on the deterioration of strength by water have yielded similar results in this research. Under saturated conditions, the shear strength decreased by 15.5%, and the fracture toughness decreased by 11.8%, compared with dry conditions. Regardless of the dry or saturated condition, the subcritical crack growth index n exhibited similar values.

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“…ZHANG et al [3] concluded a short review in laboratory tests, which focuses on the water weakening of rock strength and its influencing factors including water content, immersion time, and wettingdrying cycles. In considering water content as influencing factor on rock strength, NOËL et al [4] proposed that the plasticity of rock mass can be increase with increasing of water content while brittleness is reduced. Moreover, ZHU et al [5] and MA et al [6] concluded form experiments that rock mechanical parameters become weakened as the immersion time increases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on time-effect to the strength deterioration of carbonaceous mudstone under water-rock interaction

Mo,

Tang,

Luo

et al. 2023

Matéria (Rio J.)

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While excavation activities in mountain terrain regions, the exposure of carbonaceous mudstone could deteriorate the strength under the water-rock interaction, which impacts slope stability and affects the safety of the engineering project. The present study conducted the Point Loading Test (PLT), Acoustic Emission (AE), and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to investigate the degradation of its mechanical properties under the water-rock interaction. The results reveal that: (1) The Total Organic Carbon (TOC) content and water content correspond to a negative correlation, and the carbonaceous mudstone possesses a softening boundary which makes the mudstone strength decay rapidly resulting in the strength decrease by 80% once the water content exceeds the boundary value; (2) Water-rock interaction weakens the acoustic emission capacity and the acoustic emission characteristic in the failure process of carbonaceous mudstone with different TOC can reflect the influence of water-rock interaction on its macroscopic strength and fracture structure deterioration, and the damage degree under immersion is over 50%; (3) The inhomogeneity of water-rock interaction causes unbalanced forces in the rock, as dissolved soluble minerals and oxidation-reduction of organic matter accelerate the deterioration of carbonaceous mudstone making the water-rock interaction is slowed down by the water-swelling filling of minerals in a time period. Therefore, this study has investigated the strength deterioration of carbonaceous mudstone subjected to water-rock interaction from macro-scale and micro-scale perspectives, which provides a reference for preventing and controlling carbonaceous mudstone deterioration resulting from catastrophes.

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Effect of water on sandstone's fracture toughness and frictional parameters: Brittle strength constraints

Cited by 30 publications

References 63 publications

Thermally Enhanced Water Weakening of the Solnhofen Limestone

Thermally Enhanced Water Weakening of the Solnhofen Limestone

Degradation of Fracture Characteristics on Coconino Sandstone Due to Water Content

Study on time-effect to the strength deterioration of carbonaceous mudstone under water-rock interaction

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