Abstract
Carbonaceous mudstone suffers intrusion of wetting–drying cycles in the period of seasonal rainfall, leading to a serious threat to the stability of the related infrastructures. The presented study aims to obtain insight into the mechanical properties and deterioration mechanism of carbonaceous mudstone exposed to wetting–drying cycles. A series of laboratory tests were conducted to determine the stress–strain curve, unconfined compressive strength qu, residual strength σr, shear strength τf, cohesion c, and friction angle φ of the remolded carbonaceous mudstone samples with various cycles. The results showed that the stress–strain characteristic gradually changed from ‘brittle’ to ‘ductile’ with an increase in wetting–drying cycles. Both qu and τf presented dramatic decrease within the first 10 cycles, and then they reached a relatively stable value, indicating effective engineering measures should be conducted before this stable stage to prevent failure of the carbonaceous mudstone. The σr value exhibited a contrary trend to that of qu, which can be captured using the exponential function. Two strength parameters, c and φ, decreased with the increasing wetting–drying cycles. Scanning electron microscope analysis indicated that after suffering wetting–drying cycles, carbonaceous mudstone possessed an unstable micro-structure with larger pore size and layer spacing. This was mainly attributed to the swelling/shrinkage behavior of clay minerals, which facilitated the development of tensile stress in carbonaceous mudstone. The loss or dissolution of soluble minerals/salts yielded negative impacts on the stability of micro-structure and accelerated the deterioration of mechanical properties. Additional micro-chemical analysis was suggested to quantitatively evaluate the mineralogy and pore profile characteristics of carbonaceous mudstone with wetting–drying cycles.
Highlights
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Stress-strain behaviours of remolded carbonaceous mudstone with wetting-drying cycles were systematically evaluated.
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Variations of microstructure and mineralogy during wetting-drying cycles were tested and discussed.
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A potential deterioration mechanism of carbonaceous mudstone was proposed.
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Acknowledgements
The funding provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41907248 and 41807260) and National Primary Research & Development Plan of China (2019YFC1806000) are appreciated. The author (Tao Zhang) acknowledges the China Scholarship Council for supporting his study at University College London.
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Yang, YL., Zhang, T., Liu, SY. et al. Mechanical Properties and Deterioration Mechanism of Remolded Carbonaceous Mudstone Exposed to Wetting–Drying Cycles. Rock Mech Rock Eng 55, 3769–3780 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-022-02833-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-022-02833-8