Mechanical Properties and Constitutive Relationship of Cretaceous Frozen Sandstone under Low Temperature

Abstract

During the construction of coal mine shafts through Cretaceous water-rich stratum using the freezing method, the frozen shaft lining can break and lose stability. Hence, it is necessary to examine the mechanical properties and constitutive relationship of Cretaceous water-rich sandstone under the effect of surrounding rocks. To this end, in this work, the mechanical properties of red sandstone at different confining pressures and freezing temperatures were examined by using a ZTCR-2000 low-temperature triaxial testing system, wherein the 415–418 m deep red sandstone in the Lijiagou air-return shaft of Wenjiapo Mine was taken as the research object. The test results indicated that the stress–strain curves of rock under triaxial compression and uniaxial compression presented four stages: pore compaction, elastic compression, plastic yield, and post-peak deformation. The difference between the two cases was that the post-peak curve of the former was abrupt, while the latter exhibited a post-peak strain softening section. As the freezing temperature was constant, with the raise in the confining pressure, the elastic modulus and peak strength of the rock rose linearly, while the Poisson’s ratio decreased quadratically. As the control confining pressure was constant, the elastic modulus and rock’s peak strength increased with the decrease in the temperature, and under the condition of negative temperature, the two parameters were linearly correlated with the temperature, while the Poisson’s ratio showed the opposite trend. The two-part Hooke’s model and the statistical damage model based on Drucker–Prager (D-P) yield criterion were used to establish the stress–strain relationship models before and after the rock yield point, optimize the model parameters, and optimize the junction of the two models. The results revealed that the optimized model curve was in good agreement with the experimental curve, which suggests that the proposed model can accurately describe the stress–strain characteristics of rock under three-dimensional stress. This verified the feasibility and rationality of the proposed model for examining the constitutive relationship of rocks.