Influence of true triaxial stress paths on mechanical properties of marble

Abstract

The rock brittle failure is the result of the stress redistribution caused by the excavation of engineering construction, which can be estimated by cyclic loading tests. In this study, a series of true triaxial tests with different stress paths were conducted to investigate the influence of the variations in three principal stresses on the mechanical properties of Jinping marble. The complete stress-strain curves can be obtained due to the strain control in the monotonous loading tests whereas only the pre-peak stress-strain curves can be acquired using the stress control under cyclic loading conditions. In the true triaxial cyclic loading tests, the irreversible strains can be obtained accurately and used to describe the damage evolution of Jinping marble. Test results show that the irreversible strains have the different change trends in the different stress paths and their changes are most sensitive to the minimum principal stress. In addition, Jinping marble in the cyclic loading of the minimum principal stress test has the largest failure angle and numbers of the failure fragments, which indicates that Jinping marble becomes more brittle under this condition.