Experimental study on dilatancy behavior of soft rock under dynamic loading

Abstract

Correct understanding of rock dilatation plays a non-negligible role in the safety of rock engineering and the efficiency of geological resources extraction. Although the significance of dilatation under quasi-static loading or unloading conditions is well-studied, its behavior under dynamic loads remains poorly understood. This is largely because conventional dynamic testing system fails to capture the volumetric strain evolution of rock under confinement. This study develops a transparent confining chamber in SHPB system with which high-speed 3D-DIC is capable of measuring both axial and circumferential strain history of dynamically compressed rock. The progressive failure stages and volumetric change of red sandstone under confining pressure of 3.5 MPa and strain rates of 129∼292 s⁻¹ were studied and compared with those in quasi-static case. Results show that, the normalized stress thresholds of crack initiation and dilatancy in dynamic cases are much smaller than those in the quasi-static one. The volumetric variation of soft rock is characterized by four distinct stages: elastic contraction, pre-peak dilatancy, strain-softening dilatancy and strain-recovery dilatancy. The pre-peak elastic contraction is negligible compared to the post-peak dilation, and the ultimate dilation observed in dynamic compression is significantly greater than that in quasi-static compression. Increasing strain rate delays the onset of dilatancy, decreases the dilatant rate but remarkably extends the strain-softening dilatant process which is dominant in total dilation. A rate-dependent piecewise model incorporating key strain thresholds and a dilatancy rate factor was established to characterize the dynamic dilatancy behavior. The research results provide a new insight and possible method in dilation prediction for underground engineering subjected to dynamic loading.