The failure process of high stress rock with through-water disturbance based on acoustic emission

Abstract

In the process of deep engineering excavation, the mechanical properties of rock are significantly influenced by the coupled effects of water and high stress, which greatly increase construction difficulty. To more accurately investigate the impact of water disturbance on the failure process of dry rock under high stress and the failure mechanisms of saturated rock in underwater environments, a water environment test chamber and a prefabricated borehole specimen through-water device were designed. A series of experiments were conducted, including uniaxial tests, water-disturbed granite cylinder tests, and through-water disturbance tests on prefabricated hole square specimens. The results showed that the acoustic emission (AE) hits and accumulated energy after the through-water disturbance at the same time were 8.77 and 12.08 times higher than before the disturbance, respectively. And water disturbance increased the proportion of tensile failure and reduced the proportion of shear failure. A key observation was that AE events were mainly generated in the permeation areas near the borehole. The main reason was that under high stress, the weakening effect of water led to the failure of the local mineral structure of the rock, promoting crack extension and triggering overall instability. Notably, failure of the saturated specimens underwater was only observed when the applied load approached the saturation strength of the prefabricated hole square specimens. The study results provide an important theoretical basis for understanding the damage mechanism of water-disturbed rocks in deep engineering, and have significant implications for the design and construction of engineering.

Keywords

Water-disturbed / Rock test / High stress / Acoustic emission / Through-water device

Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52374080 and 52404201).

References

[1] Huang BL, Yin YP, Yan GQ, Li B, Qin Z, Wang J. A study on in situ measurements of carbonate rock mass degradation in the water-level fluctuation zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir. China Bull Eng Geol Environ 2021; 80(2):1091-101.

[2] Wong LNY, Maruvanchery V, Liu G. Water effects on rock strength and stiffness degradation. Acta Geotech 2016; 11(4):713-37.

[3] Wu JY, Feng MM, Yu BY, Zhang WL, Ni XY, Han GS. Experimental investigation on dilatancy behavior of water-saturated sandstone. Int J Min Sci Technol 2018; 28(2):323-9.

[4] Xiao FK, Xie K, Shan L, Liu G, Li LC, Iuliia F. Research on rock crack contact model considering linked substances based on particle flow method. Int J Min. Sci Technol 2025; 35(4):553-71.

[5] Lin P, Li SC, Xu ZH, Wang J, Huang X. Water inflow prediction during heavy rain while tunneling through karst fissured zones. Int J Geomech 2019; 19 (8):04019093.

[6] Ciantia MO, Castellanza R, Crosta GB, Hueckel T.Effects of mineral suspension and dissolution on strength and compressibility of soft carbonate rocks. Eng Geol 2015; 184:1-18.

[7] Ma D, Rezania M, Yu HS, Bai HB. Variations of hydraulic properties of granular sandstones during water inrush: Effect of small particle migration. Eng Geol 2017; 217:61-70.

[8] Xia YJ, Zhang CQ, Zhou H, Chen JL, Gao Y, Liu N, Chen P. Structural characteristics of columnar jointed basalt in drainage tunnel of Baihetan hydropower station and its influence on the behavior of P-wave anisotropy. Eng Geol 2020; 264:105304.

[9] Tang CA, Hudson JA. Rock Failure Mechanisms. Boca Raton: CRC Press; 2010.

[10] Li BY, Yang FW, Du PZ, Liu ZH. Study on the triaxial unloading creep mechanical properties and creep model of shale in different water content states. Bull Eng Geol Environ 2022; 81(10):420.

[11] Zhao ZH, Liu H, Lyu XZ, Wang L, Tian ZX, Sun JC.Experimental study on the damage and deterioration behaviour of deep soft rock under water-rock interaction. Geofluids 2021; 2021(1).

[12] Tang SB, Li JM, Zhang LT, Liu ZS, Wang SQ, Dong LB, Wang ZZ. Study on the static critical stress intensity factors of sandstone in a water environment based on semicircular bending specimens. Theor Appl Fract Mech 2021; 116:103106.

[13] Tan T, Zhang CY, Zhao YL, Li XS. Mechanical behavior and damage constitutive model of sandstone under hydro-mechanical (H-M) coupling. Int J Min Sci Technol 2024; 34(6):837-53.

[14] Li HR, Qiao YF, Shen RX, He MC, Cheng T, Xiao YM, Tang J. Effect of water on mechanical behavior and acoustic emission response of sandstone during loading process: phenomenon and mechanism. Eng Geol 2021; 294: 106386.

[15] Masoumi H, Horne J, Timms W. Establishing empirical relationships for the effects of water content on the mechanical behavior of gosford sandstone. Rock Mech Rock Eng 2017; 50(8):2235-42.

[16] Zhao K, Yang D, Zeng P, Huang Z, Wu W, Li B, Teng T. Effect of water content on the failure pattern and acoustic emission characteristics of red sandstone. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 2021; 142:104709.

[17] Zhu D, Jing HW, Yin Q, Ding SX, Zhang JH. Mechanical characteristics of granite after heating and water-cooling cycles. Rock Mech Rock Eng 2020; 53 (4):2015-25.

[18] Chen ZQ, Ma CC, Li TB, He C. Experimental investigation of the failure mechanism of deep granite under high seepage water pressure and strong unloading effect. Acta Geotech 2022; 17(11):5009-30.

[19] Zhu J, Deng JH, Chen F, Huang YM, Yu ZQ. Water saturation effects on mechanical and fracture Behavior of marble. Int J Geomech 2020; 20 (10):04020191.

[20] Liu JP, Yang Z, Sun JS, Dai ZW, Lv KH, You Q. Experimental investigation on hydration mechanism of sichuan shale (China). J Petrol Sci Eng 2021; 201:108421.

[21] Çelik MY, Ergül A. The influence of the water saturation on the strength of volcanic tuffs used as building stones. Environ Earth Sci 2015; 74(4):3223-39.

[22] Jiang LY, Xu Y, Chen BQ, Wu BB. Effect of water content on the mechanical properties of an artificial porous rock. Bull Eng Geol Environ 2021; 80 (10):7669-81.

[23] Liu Y, Liu CW, Kang YM, Wang D, Ye DY. Experimental research on creep properties of limestone under fluid-solid coupling. Environ Earth Sci 2015; 73 (11):7011-8.

[24] Chen PZ, Tang SB, Liang X, Zhang YJ, Tang CN.The influence of immersed water level on the short- and long-term mechanical behavior of sandstone. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 2021; 138:104631.

[25] Li JM, Tang SB, Li TJ, Zhang SG, Tang LX, Sun K. Study on rockburst control of deep-buried tunnel by combining advanced stress release borehole and hydraulic fracturing. Tunn Undergr Space Technol 2025; 160:106517.

[26] Li JM, Tang SB, Zhang JL, Tang BC, Zhang SG. Multitask intelligent early warning of rockbursts based on classification-regression cascaded network model. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 2025; 189:106103.

[27] Yu CY, Tang SB, Tang CA, Duan D, Zhang YJ, Liang ZZ, Ma K, Ma TH. The effect of water on the creep behavior of red sandstone. Eng Geol 2019; 253:64-74.

[28] Tang SB, Li JM, Ding S, Zhang LT. The influence of water-stress loading sequences on the creep behavior of granite. Bull Eng Geol Environ 2022; 81 (11):482.

[29] Sala A, Wick R. Gotthard base tunnel-technical project overview/gotthard-basistunnel-technische projektübersicht. Geoemch Tunn 2016; 9(2):94-110.

[30] Ying T. An outline about granitoids in china. Geol Rev 2007; 53(1):9-16.

[31] Du K, Li XF, Tao M, Wang SF. Experimental study on acoustic emission (AE) characteristics and crack classification during rock fracture in several basic lab tests. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 2020; 133:104411.

[32] Tang SB. The effects of water on the strength of black sandstone in a brittle regime. Eng Geol 2018; 239:167-78.

[33] Ding S, Tang SB, Jia HL, Li YB. The influence of water on the failure characteristics of sandstone under uniaxial compression conditions by acoustic emission and NMR observation. Eng Geol 2023; 322:107173.