Investigating the Mechanical Deterioration Effect of Hard Sandstone Induced by Layer Structure under Uniaxial Compression

The deterioration of the surrounding rock at the tunnel bottom is a damage mechanics issue that occurs under disturbance load. To investigate the anisotropic characteristics of mechanical behavior and the AE response mechanism of layered sandstone, uniaxial compression tests and acoustic emission (AE) monitoring were conducted. The results show that the layer structure causes remarkable anisotropic characteristics in the wave velocities. The strain characteristics and mechanical parameters of layered sandstone exhibit obvious deterioration effects. The local strain and overall strain show a synergistic feature, with the local strain path being more complex and the deformation response being extremely sensitive. The peak stress and elastic modulus both exhibit V-type distribution rules, slowly decreasing first, then rapidly decreasing, and finally increasing rapidly, with the boundary points of the layer angle being 45° and 67.50°. The peak stress and elastic modulus show a nonlinear exponential correlation with the layer angle, and the sandstone belongs to the intermediate anisotropy level. The rupture pattern shows significant anisotropic characteristics, with the failure modes including tension failure, including tension failure I and tension failure Ⅱ, shear failure, and tension–shear composite failure. The fractal dimension shows a negative correlation with the layer deterioration effect. The AE activity exhibits a phased response characteristic to the aging deformation of layer structure. The more obvious the layer deterioration effect is, the longer the AE delay is. The AE intensity of tensile failure sandstone is generally greater than that of oblique shear failure.

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