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Crack initiation stress of brittle rock with different porosities

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Abstract

Accurately determining the crack initiation stress (CI) is of great importance to evaluate the stability of deep underground openings and the permeability of host rock in the near field. For this paper, uniaxial compression tests and increasing amplitude cyclic stressing tests were performed on four kinds of rocks with different porosities. The stress-strain data and acoustic emission (AE) data of these tests are analyzed to evaluate the applicability and accuracy of the existing methods for determining the CI. The results demonstrate that for marble and Beishan granite with low porosity, the lateral strain (LS) method is the simplest and most direct method to obtain the CILS. For high porosity sandstone, the result of lateral strain response (LSR) method is significantly smaller than that obtained by AE. The cumulative AE hits (CAEH) method heavily depends on the “S-shaped” characteristic of the cumulative AE hits curve, which limits its scope of application. The cumulative AE hits curve slope (CAHS) method, which determines the key inflection point of the cumulative AE hits curve by slope variation to determine the CICAHS, possesses the widest applicability and highest accuracy. The CI/UCS ratios of rocks with similar grain sizes decreases with increasing porosity. For Beishan granite, the average CICAHS is less than that of CILS. They are 0.43 UCS and 0.53 UCS, respectively. According to the residual strain data from the cyclic loading tests, the two crack initiation thresholds of Beishan granite can be clearly identified. These two crack initiation thresholds represent different crack initiation sequences in grain boundaries and different minerals.

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Abbreviations

E :

Elasticity modulus

v :

Poisson’s ratio

AE:

Acoustic emission

CC:

Crack closure stress

CI:

Crack initiation stress

CD:

Crack damage stress

UCS:

Uniaxial compressive strength

CVS:

Crack volumetric strain

LS:

Lateral strain

LSR:

Lateral strain response

RCSR:

Relative compression strain response

CAEH:

Cumulative AE hits

CAHS:

Cumulative AE hits curve slope

AEHC:

AE hits count

RS:

Residual strain

AS:

Axial stiffness

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Acknowledgements

The authors are sincerely grateful to Professor Jaak J Daemen, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada, for his thoughtful proofreading of this paper.

Funding

This work was supported by the Key Projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 51234004), the Project of Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities and Radioactive Waste Management, and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (NO. 2017YFC0804601, 2018YFC0808403).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control, School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Chongqing University, 400044, Chongqing, China

    Tang Minghao & Yang Chunhe

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

    Wang Guibin & Yang Chunhe

  3. College of Resources and Environment Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, Guizhou, China

    Chen Shiwan

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  1. Tang Minghao
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  2. Wang Guibin
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  4. Yang Chunhe
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Correspondence to Wang Guibin.

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Tang, M., Wang, G., Chen, S. et al. Crack initiation stress of brittle rock with different porosities. Bull Eng Geol Environ 80, 4559–4574 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02187-5

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