Study on radon release of intact rocks during direct shear

Abstract

Radon is a polluting and radioactive gas released by rock fracture. Shear fracture is widely developed in surrounding rock mass of deep engineering. Nevertheless, the correlation between radon release and the shear fracture is undefined. In this study, the intact Jinping marble and Baihetan basalt were adopted as samples. Based on radionuclide content analysis, the intrinsic characteristics of radon emission were analyzed. Then a direct shear testing system was designed to synchronously measure radon release during rock fracture. The direct shear tests were carried out under different normal stresses. The relationship between shear fracture process and cumulative radon concentration was explored. The results indicated that radon release varied with the increase of shear displacement under the same normal stress. The general pattern showed a slight increase and fell in the initial loading phase, then increased rapidly to the peak release approximately corresponding to the peak of shear stress, and finally decreased to a stable level with the development of shear displacement after sample failure. The initial and peak radon concentrations increased linearly with the increase of normal stress. The same trend was found in shear failure surface area and cumulative radon concentration according to the rise angle (RA) value-average frequency (AF) distribution.

Keywords

radon release / intact rock / shear failure / acoustic emission / deep underground engineering

References

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