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Experimental Study of Slabbing and Rockburst Induced by True-Triaxial Unloading and Local Dynamic Disturbance

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Abstract

Slabbing/spalling and rockburst are unconventional types of failure of hard rocks under conditions of unloading and various dynamic loads in environments with high and complex initial stresses. In this study, the failure behaviors of different rock types (granite, red sandstone, and cement mortar) were investigated using a novel testing system coupled to true-triaxial static loads and local dynamic disturbances. An acoustic emission system and a high-speed camera were used to record the real-time fracturing processes. The true-triaxial unloading test results indicate that slabbing occurred in the granite and sandstone, whereas the cement mortar underwent shear failure. Under local dynamically disturbed loading, none of the specimens displayed obvious fracturing at low-amplitude local dynamic loading; however, the degree of rock failure increased as the local dynamic loading amplitude increased. The cement mortar displayed no failure during testing, showing a considerable load-carrying capacity after testing. The sandstone underwent a relatively stable fracturing process, whereas violent rockbursts occurred in the granite specimen. The fracturing process does not appear to depend on the direction of local dynamic loading, and the acoustic emission count rate during rock fragmentation shows that similar crack evolution occurred under the two test scenarios (true-triaxial unloading and local dynamically disturbed loading).

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51504287, 41272304, and 51274254). Kun Du was supported by the open fund of the State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering at the China University of Mining and Technology (Grant No. SKLGDUEK1418) and the Open-End Fund for the Valuable and Precision Instruments of Central South University (Grant No. CSUZC201643). It is acknowledged that the manuscript was reviewed by Dr. Qianbing Zhang at Monash University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, China

    Kun Du, Ming Tao, Xi-bing Li & Jian Zhou

  2. Advanced Research Center, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, China

    Kun Du

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  1. Kun Du
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  2. Ming Tao
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  3. Xi-bing Li
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  4. Jian Zhou
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Correspondence to Xi-bing Li.

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Du, K., Tao, M., Li, Xb. et al. Experimental Study of Slabbing and Rockburst Induced by True-Triaxial Unloading and Local Dynamic Disturbance. Rock Mech Rock Eng 49, 3437–3453 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-016-0990-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-016-0990-4

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