Effects of slight cyclic dynamic disturbance on the triaxial fatigue properties of sandstone

Abstract

To study the mechanical characteristics and energy evolution of rock under cyclic loading, both monotonic loading and multi-stage displacement-controlled cyclic loading test were conducted on fine-grained sandstone under different confining pressures. The results show that the peak strength of the sandstone specimens increases by 103.29% with the rise of the confining pressure under monotonic loading, and the peak strength under cyclic loading is usually improved compared with monotonic loading. Under multi-stage cyclic loading, the elastic modulus, stress, and energy of the sandstone specimens show obvious stepwise evolution characteristics, and their values are positively correlated with the confining pressure. Sandstone specimens under uniaxial conditions show splitting failure with serious fracture, while sandstone under triaxial conditions mainly generates shear failure, and the number of secondary cracks tends to increase with the rise of confining pressure. Compared with monotonic loading, the breakage of sandstone specimens under multistage cyclic loading is more serious. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images reveal that fracture surfaces after multi-stage cyclic loading are relatively rough and show typical "shell-like" or "beach-like" morphologies. Furthermore, under higher confining pressure conditions, the proportion of intergranular and intragranular cracks at the fracture surface increases due to the stronger constraint on energy release pathways. The findings can provide some value for the stability assessment of engineered rock mass under cyclic disturbance conditions.

Keywords

sandstone / multi-stage cyclic loading / mechanical behavior / failure mechanism / energy evolution

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