The influence of strain rate and sample inhomogeneity on the moduli and strength of welded tuff
- New England Research, Inc., White River Junction, VT (United States)
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
The strength of brittle rock is not a single values function of confining pressure and temperature. Strength is, in fact, a rather ambiguous term and depends on many parameters such as the loading conditions (in particular, rate), the effective pressure, composition of the pore fluid, the distribution of cracks and heterogeneities within the rock, and the scale of the sample under consideration. It is well known that brittle rocks are strongly influenced by the moisture content in the pore space. Water facilitates stress corrosion at the tips of micro-cracks under load. The effect of stress corrosion cracking in brittle rocks is to reduce the strength with increasing partial pressure of water, increasing temperature, and decreasing loading rate. In most cases, it is difficult to document the partial pressure of water within the pore space. Complete water saturation provides the most unambiguous condition. In light of the significance of environmental parameters and strain rate on the strength of rocks, it is important that the functional relation between each of these properties be considered when incorporated into models for the potential nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This report address the effect of strain rate and heterogeneity of the strength and moduli of fully saturated tuff specimens from the potential repository horizon at Yucca Mountain.
- Research Organization:
- Wisconsin Univ., Madison, WI (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 145469
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/14352--1; CONF-930644--Vol.2; ON: DE94014602
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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