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A Potential Strain Indicator for Brittle Failure Prediction of Low-porosity Rock: Part I—Experimental Studies Based on the Uniaxial Compression Test

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Abstract

In this paper, we have investigated the quantitative relationship between the axial strain threshold at the volumetric strain reversal point (ε 1cd) and the strain threshold at the peak stress (ε 1ucs) during the uniaxial compression tests. We found that normalized values of ε 1ucs/ε 1cd for different rock types are typically ~1.34(±0.24). This is especially true for igneous and metamorphic rocks, or low-porosity sedimentary rocks. To verify this finding, we investigated seven granitic gneiss samples using the uniaxial compression test. Our results were consistent with the above statistics. We inferred that ε 1ucs/ε 1cd may be an intrinsic property of low-porosity rocks, and may be a potential indicator for predicting failure strains in laboratory-scale rock samples.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Project funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2014T70121 and 2012M520376), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41302233 and 41030750), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Grant No. XDB10030302.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Lei Xue, Siqing Qin, Guoliang Li, Pei Li & Miaomiao Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Engineering Geomechanics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Lei Xue, Siqing Qin, Guoliang Li, Pei Li & Miaomiao Wang

  3. North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou, 450011, China

    Meng Qi

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  1. Lei Xue
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  2. Meng Qi
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  3. Siqing Qin
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Correspondence to Lei Xue.

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Xue, L., Qi, M., Qin, S. et al. A Potential Strain Indicator for Brittle Failure Prediction of Low-porosity Rock: Part I—Experimental Studies Based on the Uniaxial Compression Test. Rock Mech Rock Eng 48, 1763–1772 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-014-0675-9

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