Abstract
Rock failure is the result of internal crack initiation (CI), propagation and intersection under external loading. This paper carried out a series of experimental tests and numerical simulations that aim to reveal the failure mechanical behavior, crack development, AE event attributes and failure characteristics of oil shale under various confining pressures. The results suggest that the peak and residual strength of the oil shale under triaxial compression are both enhanced with increasing confining pressure. Splitting failure and diagonal shear failure are the main macrofailure modes of the specimens under uniaxial and triaxial compressive condition. Shear cracks play a dominant role in the rock failure process especially under high confining pressures. The AE event rate shifts from concentration to dispersion with the change from uniaxial to triaxial compression. The cumulative number of cracks, the cumulative AE event counts before the peak strength and the CI stress all first increase sharply and then increase gradually with increasing confining pressure. However, the ratio of the cumulative numbers of shear cracks to tensile cracks before the peak strength increases at a fairly steady rate as the confining pressure increases. These findings are helpful to evaluate the stability and safety of rock mass under confining pressure, and could also provide a basis for the design of rock mass reinforcement.
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Data Availability
All data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
His research is financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (Grant No. 212300410231), the Nanhu Young Scholars Program of Xinyang Normal University and the Graduate Research Innovation Fund Project of Xinyang Normal University (Grant No. 2021KYJJ16). The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by them.
Funding
The present work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (Grant No. 212300410231), the Nanhu Young Scholars Program of Xinyang Normal University and the Graduate Research Innovation Fund Project of Xinyang Normal University (Grant No. 2021KYJJ16).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Laboratory testing preparation, data collection, numerical simulation and analysis were performed by Wenqiang Ma and Limin Luo. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Wenqiang Ma and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ma, W., Luo, L. & Wang, J. Mechanical, Cracking and Failure Behavior of Oil Shale Under Various Confining Pressures. Geotech Geol Eng 41, 2409–2425 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02406-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02406-8