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Effect of stress amplitude on mechanical and acoustic emission of sandstone under constant–cyclic loading

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Abstract

The mechanical characteristics of sandstone under constant–cyclic loading with different amplitudes play a significant role in geotechnical engineering. In this research, constant–cyclic tests with stress amplitudes of 5%, 10%, and 15% of the uniaxial compressive strength were conducted to analyse the effect of stress amplitude on the mechanical behaviours of sandstone. Then, the internal crack propagation of sandstone was characterized based on the real-time record of an acoustic emission (AE) technique. Finally, the fragments of the rock mass distribution and failure pattern were assessed. The results showed that the cyclic deformation, acoustic emission response, fragmentation characteristics, and internal cracks depend strongly on the stress amplitude. With increasing stress amplitude, the peak strength first increases and then decreases. There may exist a specific loading amplitude that increases the peak strength. In addition, a higher stress amplitude may lead to peak strength degradation to some extent. In addition, the elastic and dissipated energy shows decreasing and increasing trends in the cyclic loading stages, respectively. Elastic energy accounts for the largest proportion of all input energy. The fragment distribution is more uneven, the percentage of large and small blocks increases, and the failure patterns are more complex under higher stress amplitudes, which can reveal the fracture characteristics of the sandstone under different amplitudes. These results can offer a reference to understand the different disruption effects on the engineering characteristics of sandstone and play a guiding role in the mining-induced stress boundary movement and control of dynamic disasters.

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All data, models, and codes generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFC3004704), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52174166 and 52074041), the “Overall Rationing System” Project of Chongqing Talent Program (cstc2022ycjh-bgzxm0077), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2020CDJ-LHZZ-002), and the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing, China (cstc2020jcyj-msxmX0836), which are gratefully acknowledged.

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Bichuan Zhang, Yunpei Liang, Zhanyi Zhao, Quanle Zou, Haolong Zheng, Yanhao Ning, Fanjie Kong, and Qican Ran. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Bichuan Zhang, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Conceptualization: Bichuan Zhang; methodology: Quanle Zou; formal analysis and investigation: Haolong Zheng, Qican Ran, and Yanhao Ning; writing, original draft preparation: Bichuan Zhang; writing, review and editing: Bichuan Zhang, Zhanyi Zhao, and Fanjie Kong; funding acquisition: Yunpei Liang and Quanle Zou; resources: Quanle Zou; and supervision: Yunpei Liang.

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Zhang, B., Liang, Y., Zhao, Z. et al. Effect of stress amplitude on mechanical and acoustic emission of sandstone under constant–cyclic loading. Bull Eng Geol Environ 82, 284 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-023-03307-z

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