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A New Rock Brittleness Index Based on the Peak Elastic Strain Energy Consumption Ratio

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A Correction to this article was published on 05 February 2022

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Abstract

To evaluate rock brittleness more accurately, a new rock brittleness index based on the peak elastic strain energy consumption ratio (PEECR) was proposed in this study. Considering the relationship between rock brittleness and energy evolution characteristics of rock materials under confining pressure, the PEECR was defined as the dissipated proportion of peak elastic strain energy relative to failure energy and residual elastic strain energy (the maximum value of PEECR is 1.0, which indicates the corresponding rock will fail immediately after reaching the peak strength). The evaluation accuracy of the PEECR was verified based on the conventional triaxial compression tests on shale under six confining pressures, and the universality of the PEECR was also analyzed according to test data of six types of rocks from previous studies. The results show that the PEECR continuously decreases with the increasing of confining pressures, and is suitable for various types of rocks and a wider range of brittleness degrees. Finally, the evaluation accuracies of the PEECR and 11 existing rock brittleness energy indexes were compared and analyzed, and the results indicate that PEECR can evaluate rock brittleness more accurately.

Highlights

  • A new rock brittleness index based on peak elastic strain energy consumption ratio (PEECR) was proposed considering the relationship between the rock brittleness and energy evolution characteristics of rock materials under confining pressures.

  • It is verified based on conventional triaxial compression tests that PEECR can accurately evaluate rock brittleness, and is suitable for various types of rocks and a wider range of brittleness degrees.

  • The evaluation accuracy for rock brittleness of PEECR is higher than other existing indexes by comparison based on test results, and PEECR can be popularized in practical application.

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Abbreviations

BIER :

Peak elastic strain energy consumption ratio

E :

Pre-peak elastic modulus

σ 1 :

Axial stress

σ 3 :

Circumferential stress

σ p :

Peak strength

σ r :

Residual strength

ε d :

Axial strain when peak stress is unloaded to 0

ε r :

Axial strain at the beginning point of residual strength stage

ε u :

Axial strain when the residual stress is unloaded to 0

εp :

Peak axial strain

U e p :

Peak elastic strain density

U f :

Failure energy density

U e r :

Residual elastic strain energy density

U a :

Additional input energy density

U ec :

Consumed elastic strain energy density during the failure process

U d p :

Peak dissipated energy density

U ei :

Peak elastic strain energy of the absolute brittle rock

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42077244) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Southeast University (Grant No. 2242021R10080, 3205002108C3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center of Safety and Protection of Explosion and Impact of Ministry of Education (ERCSPEIME), Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Fengqiang Gong

  2. School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Fengqiang Gong

  3. School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Yunliang Wang

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Correspondence to Fengqiang Gong.

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Gong, F., Wang, Y. A New Rock Brittleness Index Based on the Peak Elastic Strain Energy Consumption Ratio. Rock Mech Rock Eng 55, 1571–1582 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-021-02738-y

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