Experimental Study on Mechanical Property of Thermo-Mechanical and Hydro-Mechanical Coupling Condition for a Sandstone

The mechanical properties of rock under high temperature, high geostress and high pore pressure are the basic and important information to assess the safety of underground engineering in west China. Based on the environmental conditions of the west route of south-to-north water transfer project in west China, a series of triaxial tests at confining pressures (0 to 60MPa) and temperatures (25°C to 70°C) as well as pore pressure (0 to 10MPa) have been conducted for a sandstone. It is reported that under the temperatures varying from 25°C to 70°C, the strength of the rock increases with the increment of confining pressure, while the deformation modulus of the rock doesn’t change distinctly with the increment of confining pressures. It is also indicated under the temperatures condition in the experiments, when the confining pressure is lower than 40MPa, the strength of the rock increases with the increment of temperature, whereas when the confining pressure is higher than 40MPa, the strength of rock tend to decrease with increment of temperature. It is further shown that the strength decreases with increasing pore pressure, and the decreasing rates tend to decrease with the increment of confining pressures.