The creep behaviour and permeability evolution of breccia lava in triaxial creep tests

Abstract

Breccia lava is a comparatively weaken rock material that has been widely distributed in the Southwest China. Its creep behaviour and permeability evolution are significantly important to the long-term safety and stability of rock engineering. This paper presents the experimental results of breccia lava under triaxial creep tests. The microstructure of the breccia lava before and after the creep tests was studied by scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy. The results suggested that the erosion of calcite induced by pore-water pressure contributes greatly in increasing the permeability in creep stage.