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Effect of wetting and drying cycles on microstructure of rock based on SEM

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Abstract

To study the effect of periodic water circulation on rock mass, chlorite–amphibolite rocks from the slope of Nanfen open-pit iron mine in Liaoning province were chosen as the engineering samples and were investigated using uniaxial compressive experiment and scanning electron microscopy. The effect of different wetting and drying cycles on the mechanical properties and microstructure of the rocks was investigated. The characteristics of pore parameters from the SEM images were obtained by Image Pro Plus image processing software. The results show that with the increase in number of wetting and drying cycles, the uniaxial compressive strength of the rock decreases and the porosity increases significantly. The weakening of macroscopic mechanical properties of rocks is closely related to the changes in microstructures of rocks. The water–rock interaction changes the size, shape and porosity of the rock pores and then affects its mechanical properties. Based on the combination of macro and micro, quantitative analysis of the weakening process of rocks subjected to wet and dry cycles can provide a better reference index for evaluating the stability of geotechnical engineering.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 41672347) and Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (no. 8142032). We also express our thanks to the reviewers for their time and effort to review this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, 100083, Beijing, China

    Xiaojie Yang, Jiamin Wang, Chun Zhu, Manchao He & Yang Gao

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

    Xiaojie Yang, Jiamin Wang, Chun Zhu, Manchao He & Yang Gao

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  1. Xiaojie Yang
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  2. Jiamin Wang
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  3. Chun Zhu
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  4. Manchao He
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  5. Yang Gao
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Correspondence to Jiamin Wang or Chun Zhu.

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Yang, X., Wang, J., Zhu, C. et al. Effect of wetting and drying cycles on microstructure of rock based on SEM. Environ Earth Sci 78, 183 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8191-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8191-6

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