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Strength and failure characteristics of jointed marble under true triaxial compression

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Abstract

The rock structure and three-dimensional stress state play a vital role in the mechanical behaviour of rock masses. Here, a series of true triaxial compression tests (σ1 > σ2 > σ3) are conducted on jointed marble (50 × 50 × 100 mm3) containing a natural stiff joint, taken from the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL-II) project. The purposes of this study are to investigate the joint effect and estimate the stress dependency of jointed marble. The test results show that jointed marble can fail in four distinct forms, namely, splitting or shearing of intact marble, opening of the joint or sliding along the joint, and these failure modes are influenced by the joint configuration and the minimum and intermediate principal stresses. Generally, jointed marble has more brittle post-peak behaviour than intact marble. The linear Mogi-Coulomb failure criterion can be modified to describe the strength of the jointed marble under true triaxial compression. The jointed marble strength is more sensitive to the minimum principal stress than to the intermediate principal stress. A maximum decline of 25% in strength is observed, which corresponds to a joint dip angle of 60° at σ2 = 60 MPa and σ3 = 30 MPa. The link between the experimental results and in situ fracturing at CJPL-II is also demonstrated.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 51621006 and 51839003. The authors also express their gratitude to the support from Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education on Safe Mining of Deep Metal Mines, Northeastern University. The authors would also like to thank Mr. Yong Han and Mr. Qiang Han at Northeastern University, China, for their work and assistance in the laboratory tests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Yaohui Gao, Xia-Ting Feng & Zhaofeng Wang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yaohui Gao & Zhaofeng Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education on Safe Mining of Deep Metal Mines, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

    Xia-Ting Feng & Xiwei Zhang

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  1. Yaohui Gao
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  2. Xia-Ting Feng
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  3. Zhaofeng Wang
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  4. Xiwei Zhang
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Correspondence to Xia-Ting Feng.

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Gao, Y., Feng, XT., Wang, Z. et al. Strength and failure characteristics of jointed marble under true triaxial compression. Bull Eng Geol Environ 79, 891–905 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-019-01610-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-019-01610-2

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