ISRM-Sponsored International Symposium on Rock Mechanics:

Rock Characterisation, Modelling and Engineering Design Methods

A new apparatus for investigating stress, deformation and seepage

coupling properties of rock fractures
C. H. Liu & C. X. Chen
Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan

ABSTRACT

A true triaxial apparatus which is composed of three sub-devices is presented. This apparatus
allows for investigations on deformation and seepage behaviors of a single rock fracture subjected
to lateral stress, as well as under normal stress. The first device has three jacks which can apply
loads independently in three orthogonal directions. The second device is used to supply water
inflow, control seepage pressure and measure flow velocity in real time. The last device is for
measuring the normal deformation of rock fractures. Four strain gauges are symmetrically
embedded into the rock sample, connected with a data acquisition instrument. After the
presentation of the true triaxial experimental apparatus, some tests for investigating normal
deformation behaviors of rock fractures subjected to normal and lateral loads, adopting hard granite
specimens with an artificial persistent fracture, are introduced. The results show that the aperture
of rock fractures is influenced not only by the normal stress but also by lateral stresses. The
aperture decreases with increasing the normal stress but increases as the lateral stress rises and
obeys an exponential relationship with both normal stress and lateral stresses. Further studies on
normal deformation behaviors of rock fractures considering mechanical and geometrical
parameters and stress, and deformation and seepage coupling properties subjected to triaxial loads
are in progress.

1 INTRODUCTION normal stress increases, but rises with increasing lateral

Seepage and stress fields coupling of jointed rock masses
in many geotechnical situations such as water
conservation, hydropower, high-lever radioactive waste
disposal, oil reposition and slope engineering, has
attracted concentrated attention. Since a rock fracture is
the weakest part of rock masses, it is extremely important
to investigate stress, deformation and seepage coupling
properties of a single fracture to study the
hydro-mechanical law of jointed rock mass. Many
researchers (Snow 1968; Gangi 1978; Witherspoon et al.
1980; Barton et al. 1985; Tsang 1987; Liu 1987; Su et al.
1997; Chen et al. 2000) have made significant
contributions to the understanding of this problem.
However, most investigations have mainly focused on the
aspect of seepage and normal stress coupling. Actually,
rock masses always lie in a condition of 3D stresses.
Accordingly, it is significant to study seepage properties
of rock fractures under 3D stresses. Limited
investigations in this field are documented in literature.
Zhang et al. (1997) and Zeng et al. (2005) studied flow of
rock fractures under different stress conditions and
pointed out that the flow velocity diminishes as the
stress. Zhao et al. (1999) developed an empirical
equation to calculate hydraulic conductivity subjected to
triaxial stresses. These investigations were performed
by general triaxial experimental tests. Although they
greatly promoted studies on the seepage characteristics of
rock fractures subjected to 3D stresses, much more
researches are necessary to obtain robust theories,
especially in the area of true triaxial hydro-mechanical
properties.
In this paper, a true triaxial device (RPT-3D) designed
for studying stress, deformation and seepage properties of
rock fractures, is first presented, and then some tests for
investigatiing normal deformation behaviors of a single
rock fracture due to normal and lateral loads, adopting
hard granite specimens with an artificial persistent
fracture are introduced.
2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRUE TRIAXIAL
APPARATUS
The true triaxial apparatus shown in plate 1 consists of
three sub-devices including the loading device, the
seepage measurement device and the deformation
measurement device.
2.1 The loading device
The loading device including two horizontal jacks and a
vertical jack is depicted in figure 1, which can apply loads
independently along three orthogonal directions. One
horizontal jack loads a normal stress to the rock fracture;
another horizontal jack and the vertical jack exert lateral
stresses. The jacks fixed on the steel loading box which
is rigid enough, and equipped with stress meters, can
apply 0 5MPa normal stress or lateral stress to a
rectangular specimen with the size 15cm!15cm!28cm.
Plate 1: RPT-3D
7 6 7
2 1
5 high-pressure nitrogen tank; 10, water tank; 11, valves; 12,
3 3
6 6
8 2.3 The deformation measurement device
Figure 1: Schematic of the loading device: 1, specimen; 2, rock
fracture; 3, horizontal jacks; 4, vertical jack; 5, steel loading
box; 6, pressure plates; 7, tension rods; 8, support frame
2.2 The seepage measurement device
The RPT-3D has a seepage system shown in figure 2
which produces water flow through the rock fracture.
For the specimen is made by splitting hard granite and
hence the fracture is persistent, in order to prepare the
specimen and ensure it is leakproof on the sides parallel
to the flow direction, two notches of 0.5 cm in depth and
0.5 cm in width are cut into the two parallel sides of the
specimen and closed using silicon paste. Therefore, the
effective size of the fracture is 140 mm280 mm.
Hydraulic pressure is applied using stable high-pressure
nitrogen which is controlled through a compressor valve.
Water flows through the fracture from the bottom to the
top of the specimen which is seated on and covered by
two steel plates with flow-guided grids respectively.
Two valves are respectively placed at the inlet and the
outlet to control accurately seepage pressure and flow
velocity through the fracture. Water current is measured
by a flowmeter.
11
12 13
14
15 12
11
11
15
11 10 9
12
14
Figure 2: Sketch of water flow though a rock fracture: 9,
pressure meters; 13, flowmeter; 14, flow-guided grids; 15, seal
rings.
According to Darcy Law, hydraulic conductivity
increases with rising squared aperture. The aperture is a
key factor which affects stress, deformation and seepage
coupling properties of rock fractures. In order to
monitoring the normal deformation of a rock fracture
subjected to loads, four strain gauges are symmetrically
embedded in two notches, which are cut for creating the
persistent fracture and molded with silicon paste, and
connected to a data acquisition instrument by wires, as
depicted in figure 3. The stable values of four strain
gauges are collected by the data acquisition instrument
and their average value represents the normal
deformation/aperture increment of the rock fracture.
16
17
18
Figure 3: Normal deformation measurement of rock fractures:
16, data acquisition instrument; 17, strain gauges; 18, notches
cut for creating a persistent fracture.
3 SPECIMEN AND TEST PROCEDURE
3.1 Specimen preparation
The granite used to prepare the specimen is from Daye in
China, with the unit weight 26.7 kN/m3 and the uniaxial
compressive strength 136 MPa. All six faces of the
specimen were polished with smoothness 0.5mm,
dimension error 0.3mm and angle error 0.25. Two
notches of 0.5 cm in depth and 0.5 cm in width were first
cut at the middle of two parallel faces, and then the
specimen was split along the notches. The artificial
fracture was fully superposed, before the strain gauges
were embedded and the notches were molded with silicon
paste. Finally, a specimen of 150 mm!150 mm!280
mm, with an artificial persistent fracture of 140 mm!280
mm, was prepared.
3.2 Test procedure
In order to investigating mechanical properties of a single
rock fracture, deformation tests of the rock fracture under
normal and lateral stresses were performed. In this
paper, test results in two cases are introduced. Case 1 is
subjected to normal stress with zero lateral stresses and
case 2 is under lateral stresses with constant normal stress.
These orthogonal stresses applied on the specimen are
shown in figure 4.
3
2 1
Figure 4: Stresses applied on the specimen
For case 1, normal stress was exerted in steps as planed.
After the loading process was over, the specimen was
unloaded step by step and then a circle loading process
was finished. At each step, normal deformation of the
fracture was measured by keeping the normal load
constant. As for case 2, the normal stress and a lateral
stress were applied but kept constant during testing.
Normal deformation at each step was recorded in the
same way as case 1.
4 TEST RESULTS
The relationship curves of the normal stress and the
normal deformation are described in figure 5. It is
shown that normal deformation (being positive while
compression) increases as normal stress increases, in
other words, the aperture of the rock fracture decreases
when subjected to normal stress. The higher the normal
stress is, the lower the increasing rate in normal
deformation is. This indicates that the aperture of the
rock fracture tends to a stable value. It is also observed
from figure 5 that plastic deformation due to normal load
occurs although it is negligible compared with elastic
deformation and that the test results are repeatable by
circle loading.
Figure 6 presents the relationships between the lateral
stress and the normal deformation. In this case, normal
deformation decreases with rising lateral stress, and the
higher the lateral stress is, the greater the growth in
normal deformation is. It can be seen from figure 6 that
the relationship of the lateral stress and the normal
deformation is affected by the normal stress. When a 2(MPa)
greater normal stress is applied, the increment of normal 0 1 2 3 4 5
deformation under the same lateral stress is smaller. 0

-2
250
-4
200 -6

b(m)
b(m)

-8
150
-10
100 Loading
-12
Unloading
(b)
50
Figure 6: Influence of lateral stress on normal deformation of a
rock fracture. (a) S 1  0.928 MPa S 3  0.785 MPa;
0
(b) S 1  1.321 MPa S 3  0.785 MPa.
0 1 2 3 4 5
(a)
1(MPa)

5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

250

200 The test results show that the normal deformation of a

rock fracture is affected not only by normal stress but also
b(m)

150 by lateral stress. Although normal deformation

increases with increasing normal stress but decreases with
100 Loading growing lateral stress, it approximately obeys an
Unloading exponential relationship with both normal stress and
50 lateral stress, as shown in figures.5-6. Therefore, lateral
stress can be equivalent to a normal tensile stress
0 (compression being positive). An exponential equation
0 1 2 3 4 5 describing the normal deformation behavior of a single
(b) 1(MPa) rock fracture under normal stress, proposed by Sun
(1983), is widely adopted and is expressed as
Figure 5: Influence of normal stress on normal deformation of a S
1
rock fracture. (a) First circle loading; (b) second circle loading.
$b  b0 1 e K n (1)


where b0 is the maximum closing deformation, Kn is the
2(MPa) relevant closing stiffness of the fracture faces, b is the
0 1 2 3 4 5
closing deformation and 1 is the normal stress.
0
Considering lateral stresses, equation (1) can be written
-5 as:
-10 S C ( S 2 S 3 )
1

$b  b0 1 e Kn (2)

-15
b(m)

-20 where is defined as the influencing coefficient of lateral

stress on normal deformation, and 2 and 3 are the lateral
-25
stresses.
-30 Further, aperture can be expressed as:
(a)

S
C (S 2  S 3 )
b  b0 exp
1 (3) deformation and conductivity coupling of rock joints.
Kn
Equation (3) describes the relationship of the aperture
and triaxial stresses. Further studies on normal
deformation behaviors of rock fractures considering
mechanical and geometrical parameters are necessary for
a more precise understanding.
Above presentations indicate that the true triaxial
apparatus was successfully designed and well used to
perform mechanical tests of rock fractures. Good results
describing the relationships of the aperture and triaxial
stresses have been obtained. As for future work, we
intend to investigate normal deformation behaviors of
rock fractures considering mechanical and geometrical
parameters and seepage properties of rock fractures
subjected to triaxial stresses.
ACHNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China through a grant 50809069.
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