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Hydraulic Fracture Feature of Rock Under Unloading Based on Test and Numerical Simulation

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Abstract

Water inrush results from excavation unloading and high water pressure coupling. To study the propagation mechanisms of hydraulic fracture and failure mode under unloading conditions, hydraulic fracturing tests and numerical simulations were carried out to study the effects of unloading rate, principal stress difference, and the angle of water-conducting cracks on crack propagation. The results showed that the failure mode is a splitting failure with a single crack under a low unloading rate, while the mode is a multi-crack failure under a high unloading rate. Rock fracture requires higher water pressure under slow unloading conditions, but the rupture time is shorter, and the energy release rate in the moment of failure is greater. During unloading with a low principal stress difference, when the angle between the prefabricated crack and the horizontal direction of the model θ < 45°, the extension direction of hydraulic fracture is mainly controlled by the maximum principal stress direction. When θ > 45°, the growth direction is controlled by the angle of the water diversion fissure. During unloading with a principal stress difference of 0, when θ ≤ 30°, the propagation of hydraulic fracture is more easily controlled by the water conduction fracture. During unloading with a high principal stress difference, when θ ≥ 30°, the maximum principal stress direction controls the propagation. The angle of the water-conducting fracture has little effect on the propagation direction of the main crack. The research in this paper is of great importance in studying the mechanism of water inrush disasters.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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All code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

Much of the work presented in this paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51879148, 51991391, 52279104, 42302318), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M710081, 2023M732088).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Research Center, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, Shandong, China

    Meixia Wang, Zongqing Zhou & Weimin Yang

  2. School of Qilu Transportation, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, Shandong, China

    Junyan Yang, Zongqing Zhou, Weimin Yang, Songsong Bai, Daosheng Zhang & Yang Geng

  3. Beijing Urban Construction Design and Development Group Co., Limited, Beijing, 100037, China

    Pinglin Jiang & Pengfei Lv

  4. School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, China

    Pinglin Jiang

  5. Beijing Urban Construction Rail Transit Construction Engineering Co., Ltd, Beijing, 102600, China

    Xinwei Ji

Authors
  1. Junyan Yang
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  2. Meixia Wang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design; JY: Investigation, Validation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing-original draft; MW: Methodology, Data curation, Visualization, Investigation, Project administration; ZZ: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Data curation, Visualization; WY: Visualization, Investigation, Supervision, Funding acquisition; SB: Validation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization; DZ: Writing-review & editing, Visualization, Formal analysis; GY: Data Curation; PJ: Supervision, Resources, Software; XJ: Supervision, Software; PL: Resources.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Meixia Wang or Zongqing Zhou.

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Yang, J., Wang, M., Zhou, Z. et al. Hydraulic Fracture Feature of Rock Under Unloading Based on Test and Numerical Simulation. Geotech Geol Eng 42, 2221–2240 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02670-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02670-8

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