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A Novel Mogi Type True Triaxial Testing Apparatus and Its Use to Obtain Complete Stress–Strain Curves of Hard Rocks

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Abstract

A true triaxial apparatus (TTA) was designed and fabricated at Northeastern University, Shenyang, China, by modifying the original Mogi type testing apparatus to emulate three-dimensional stress paths in deep mining and tunneling excavations. Such an apparatus can be used to investigate deformation and brittle failure behaviors of hard rocks as well as the cause of rockbursts. The novel TTA can capture the post-peak behavior of a 50 × 50 × 100 mm3 specimen. Technical improvements such as a considerable increase of the stiffness of the loading frames were implemented to deal with difficulties in TTA testing. The accuracy of the volume change measurement was improved and a combined pneumatic and hydraulic technique was applied to create a “floating” vertical loading frame. The end friction effect and the loading gap effect were evaluated using a series of tests. Repeatability tests, brittle failure tests in a loading stress path and an unloading stress path (unloading of σ 3) were carried out on granite specimens to verify the performance of the TTA. The test results show that the apparatus achieves its original design goal.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 11232014 and 11572083. The work in this paper was partly supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (N120401007). We are grateful to Prof. Bezalel Haimson (The University of Wisconsin, Madison) and Prof. Xiaochun Li (Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan) for their valuable suggestions and discussions during the development of this apparatus, and to Mr. Qingze Hao (Rising Sun Testing Instruments Co. LTD, Changchun) for the modification and improvements of the new apparatus. The authors also wish to thank Prof. Ming Cai for his valuable comments and English improvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Xia-Ting Feng

  2. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education on Safe Mining of Deep Metal Mines, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, Liaoning, China

    Xiwei Zhang, R. Kong & G. Wang

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  1. Xia-Ting Feng
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  2. Xiwei Zhang
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  3. R. Kong
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  4. G. Wang
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Correspondence to Xiwei Zhang.

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Feng, XT., Zhang, X., Kong, R. et al. A Novel Mogi Type True Triaxial Testing Apparatus and Its Use to Obtain Complete Stress–Strain Curves of Hard Rocks. Rock Mech Rock Eng 49, 1649–1662 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-015-0875-y

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