Experimental investigation on dilatancy behavior of water-saturated sandstone

It is important to study the dilatancy property of water-saturated rock for understanding the engineering behavior of loaded rock mass. This study carried out the uniaxial and triaxial compressive experiments on the water-saturated red sandstone, analyzed the influences of confining pressure and pore pressure on dilatancy property of water-saturated rock, and discussed the reasonable basis of the stress of dilatancy onset as a strength design parameter of rock engineering, finally established the prediction model of the stress of dilatancy onset under the impacts of confining pressure and pore pressure. The results show that the strength parameters (the stress of dilatancy onset and peak strength) and deformation parameters (axial strain and circumferential strain) of water-saturated sandstone increase with the confining pressure, and the relations can be fitted with a positive linear function. The cohesion and internal friction angle obtained from the stress of dilatancy onset decrease by 11.57% and 7.33%, respectively, when compared with those obtained from the peak strength. The strength parameters and deformation parameters of water-saturated sandstone decrease basically with the increase of pore pressure, in which the relations between strength parameters or axial strain and pore pressure can be fitted with a negative linear function. However, the relation between the peak circumferential strain and the pore pressure should be characterized by a negative exponential function, and the circumferential strain at dilatancy onset isn’t affected by the pore pressure. Keywords: Rock mechanics, Dilatancy behavior, Confining pressure, Pore pressure, Water-saturate