Geotech Geol Eng

DOI 10.1007/s10706-017-0278-9

ORIGINAL PAPER

Mechanical Properties and Deformation and Failure

Characteristics of Surrounding Rocks of Tunnels Excavated
in Soft Rocks
Lei Han . Yanyan Zuo . Zeng Guo . Limin Zhang . Xiangmin Chen .
Jiayan Mao

Received: 22 March 2017 / Accepted: 9 June 2017

Ó Springer International Publishing AG 2017

Abstract As soft rocks are likely to soften, slime and
swell while contacting water, the existence of soft
rocks is harmful for stability of surrounding rocks and
supporting structures of tunnels. Through uniaxial and
triaxial tests under dry condition and triaxial test with
different moisture contents, the mechanical properties
and failure modes of soft rocks were studied under
conditions that the schistosity plane of the rock
samples was vertical to, presented an oblique angle
with, and paralleled to the loading direction. The
results showed that peak strengths in natural and
water-bearing states increased with increasing confin-
ing pressures, while those in water-bearing state were
40% lower than those in natural state. The samples
were mainly subjected to ductile failure in both natural
and water-bearing states while the samples in natural
state exhibited a certain brittle failure characteristic in
post-peak phase. With the increase of confining
L. Han (&)  Y. Zuo  Z. Guo  L. Zhang
Zhangjiakou Vocational and Technical College,
Zhangjiakou 075000, Hebei, China
e-mail: hanll81@163.com
X. Chen
Zhangjiakou Zhangyuan Project Management Co., Ltd,
Zhangjiakou 075000, Hebei, China
e-mail: 158554830@qq.com
J. Mao
Shijiazhuang City Rail Transit Limited Liability
Company, Shijiazhuang 050043, Hebei, China
e-mail: maojiayan2006@126.com
pressures, the post-peak curve gradually became
gentle after certain brittle failure while the post-peak
stresses had an insignificant change. In comparison,
the samples in water-bearing state showed significant
post-peak disparity, that is, exhibited strong ductile
failure characteristic. Moreover, the fitting relation-
ship between triaxial compressive strength and mois-
ture of soft rocks can be expresses as r1 = Ax ?
B (A \ 0, B [ 0) while that between elasticity mod-
ulus and moisture can be expresses as E = Ax ?
B (A \ 0, B [ 0).
Keywords Tunnel  Soft rock  Mechanical test 
Deformation characteristic  Failure characteristic
1 Introduction
In recent years, the construction of transportation
infrastructure in flat areas has been basically finished
after the years of work. Thus, it is evitable to develop
mountainous areas. Due to the influences of terrian
conditions in mountainous areas, tunnels are widely
applied to cross mountain ridges during route selection
process and the proportion of tunnels taking up the total
lengths of a route rises yearly. There is no doubt that the
tunneling has been the dominant engineering of trans-
portation construction in mountainous areas (Qian and
Rong 2008; Jiang et al. 2010; Wang et al. 2016).
The concept of soft rocks varies in ground
engineering field according to industrial definitions,

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so there are several definitions of soft rocks. Interna-
tional Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) defines
rocks with uniaxial compressive strength in the range
of 0.5–25 MPa as soft rocks including metamorphic
rocks such as schist, shale, and phyllite, in addition to
mud rock, marlstone and sandshale (Einstein 2016). In
addition, in the noun conference on coal mine pressure
(Kunming, China, 1984), soft rocks were defined as a
loose and soft rock containing lots of swelling clay
minerals, with low strength, large interspace, low
cementation degree, and affected by cutting and
weathering of structural planes. Moreover, some
scholars define the fault fracture zone and so on as
soft rocks and they think that apart from low-strength
rock masses, high-fractured rocks also belong to soft
rocks (Shahid et al. 2000). He M C divided soft rocks
into geological and engineering soft rocks (He et al.
2002).
Tunnels are complex systems composed of sur-
rounding rocks and supports. Moreover, the construc-
tion mechanical effect of tunnels tends varies due to
the influences of geological complexity and change-
able construction environments (Zienkiewicz and
Pande 1977; Cai et al. 2004; Hoek and Diederichs
2006). Deformation of surrounding rocks of tunnels
during construction comprehensively reflects the con-
struction effect from the macroscopic perspective. By
observing and testing deformation magnitudes and
development state of deformation, the stability of
surrounding rocks and supporting structures can be
measured so as to predict the later development trend
(Verman et al. 1997; Hoek 2001). Due to low strength,
soft rocks tend to show characteristics of large
deformation magnitudes and quick deformation devel-
opment under certain engineering conditions. Thus,
once soft rocks are poorly controlled during construc-
tions, supports are easily cracked, intrude into clear-
ance, and even collapse (Vlachopoulos et al. 2013;
Wang and Huang 2014; Panthee et al. 2016). There-
fore, for tunnels excavated in soft rocks, fully studying
rock mechanics and deformation characteristics dur-
ing construction process has an important significance
for instruction design and construction.
2 Experimental Methods
Uniaxial and triaxial tests were conducted to study soft
schist by applying the INSTRON-1346 electro-
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hydraulic servo system for rocks produced in Britain.
Different control modes of loading have a significant
effect on stress–strain curve of rocks, especially on
post-peak stress–strain curves. The primary experi-
ment illustrated that local rocks on the surface of rock
samples were easily ejected out during the uniaxial test
process under axial displacement control. Therefore,
in order to ensure safety and reliability of the
experiment, the experiment was carried out after the
both ends of the sample were packed by using heat
shrink tubing.
Schist is likely to soften, slime and swell, so
uniaxial and triaxial tests in dry state and triaxial test
with different moisture contents were separately
conducted. The uniaxial test was conducted under
three conditions that the schistosity plane of the rock
sample was vertical to, presented an oblique angle
with, and paralleled to the loading directions. Finally,
the failure mode of the sample was analyzed based on
the test result to obtain deformation mechanical
characteristics and failure modes of soft schist.
As for the confining pressure in triaxial loading test,
it accorded with the stress state in the surrounding
rocks at the actual burial depth of the tunnel. The
burial depth range of the tested tunnel was within
80.4–214.7 m and the maximal horizontal principal
stress was in the range from 3.7 to 10.4 MPa.
According to the fitting result, the maximal horizontal
principal stress of the tunnel at the maximal burial
depth of 259.2 m was 10.41 MPa. Therefore, the
confining pressure was set to three levels covering the
range of the maximal principal stress, that is, 5, 10 and
15 MPa, respectively.
3 Uniaxial Compression Test in the Dry State
3.1 Test Results
A uniaxial compression test was performed in the dry
state by using three groups of rock samples (three
samples in each group). In addition, the three samples
were corresponding to the three conditions that the
schistosity plane was vertical to, showed an oblique
angle with, and paralleled to the loading directions,
respectively. The test results are displayed in Table 1
while the stress–strain curves of uniaxial compression
of the nine samples (three groups) are shown in
Figs. 1, 2 and 3.
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3.2 Characteristics of Stress–Strain Curve
The test results in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 illustrate that almost
all rock samples exhibited extremely obvious brittle
failure characteristics while the pre-peak area dis-
played a favorable elastic characteristic and volumet-
ric strain monotonically increased in pre-peak area.
The peak point and post-peak softening stage sus-
tained for a very short time, followed by instantaneous
instability and failure, to the residual strength stage.
Under such condition, the rock samples burst and
therefore remained extremely low residual bearing
capacity. However, tangential strain dramatically
increased, and shown to be sudden expansion of rock
volumes in macroscopic level. Owing to the residual
stage of rocks after the peak was finished instanta-
neously and the stress sharply dropped in the softening
stage, the tangential test sensor failed to measure later
tangential deformation.
The samples in which the schistosity plane shows
different angles with the loading directions all exhib-
ited strain softening characteristics with basically
same stress–strain curves. Moreover, the stress–strain
curves are divided into five stages including compres-
sion, elastic, plastic, strain softening and friction
stages. In the compression stage, the curve concave
upwards: strain rate decreased with the growth of
stresses; during elastic stage, the curve is basically
straight while the ratio of stresses to strains is basically
a constant; for plastic stage, the curve concave
downwards and the strain rate gradually rises to the
peak with the increasing stresses; during strain soft-
ening stage, after the stress was larger than the peak
value, stress dramatically declined with the increase of
strains; as for friction stage, with increasing strains,
the stresses gradually stabilized.
3.3 Failure Modes
The failure modes of soft schist in uniaxial compres-
sion test in the dry state are shown in Fig. 4. It can be
seen from the characteristics of failure modes that soft
schist failed in the dry state in three modes: splitting
failure running through schistosity plane, shear failure
along with schistosity plane and axial splitting failure.

Table 1 Results of uniaxial compression test about soft schist in the dry state
Serial Spatial Angle h Uniaxial compressive Elasticity modulus E/ Poisson’s Failure modes
numbers relationship between strength r/(MPa) (GPa) ratio l
of rock between schistosity
samples schistosity plane and Experimental Average Experimental Average
plane and loading values values
loading direction/(°)
direction

S-1-1 Vertical 83 56.92 59.71 27.56 28.65 0.24 Shear failure running
through schistosity
plane
S-1-2 89 63.35 30.15 0.25 Shear failure running
through schistosity
plane
S-1-3 85 58.86 28.23 0.32 Shear failure running
through schistosity
plane
S-2-1 Intersecting 38 30.13 24.82 26.75 26.64 0.28 Shear failure along
wiht a schistosity plane
S-2-2 certain 59 24.27 26.57 0.34 Shear failure along
angle schistosity plane
S-2-3 47 20.06 26.61 0.27 Shear failure along
with schistosity plane
S-3-1 Parallel 4 78.45 76.52 28.42 29.12 0.19 Axial splitting failure
S-3-2 2 80.18 29.52 0.29 Axial splitting failure
S-3-3 3 70.94 29.41 0.22 Axial splitting failure

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Fig. 1 Schistosity plane vertical to the loading direction
Fig. 2 Schistosity plane showing certain angle with the loading direction
Fig. 3 Schistosity plane parallel to the loading direction
1. Shear failure running through schistosity plane:
the failure mode is displayed in Fig. 4a. Shear
failure running through schistosity plane occurred
when schistosity plane was basically vertical to
the loading direction. Under this condition, sam-
ples were mainly damaged along the primary
shear plane penetrating the schistosity plane.
Under this condition, schist strength was con-
trolled by rock strength of schist with extremely
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thin layers while failure appeared in the weakest
position under shear stress and axial stresses.
Apart from the above primary shear plane, there
were also some lengthwise splitting planes and
horizontal cracks. It can be speculated that
horizontal cracks occurred because of extension
of micro-cracks along schiosity direction while
the lengthwise splitting planes and horizontal
cracks were connected or partially connected with
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the primary shear plane, which aggravated the
damages to the samples.
2. Shear failure along schistosity planes: the failure
mode is illustrated in Fig. 4b. The failure
appeared when schistosity plane showed an
oblique angle with the loading direction with a
certain angle. The failure was mainly reflected by
damage of the rock along the primary shear plane
penetrating the schistosity plane, with a favorable
regularity. The shear stresses and axial stresses
were combined on the schistosity plane in an
unfavorable position when the schistosity plane
developed obliquely. Therefore, the strengths and
the failure modes of rock samples under such
condition were controlled by strengths of the
schistosity plane. In addition, apart from the
primary shear plane along the schistosity plane, a
conjugate secondary shear plane also developed
on some samples. The primary and secondary
shear planes were connected or partially con-
nected. However, the primary shear plane was still
the main characteristic.
3. Axial splitting failure: the failure modes are
shown in Fig. 4c, which appeared when the
schistosity plane was paralleled to the loading
directions. In this context, the sample failure was
considered as primary characteristic due to an
axial cleavage plane as well as shear failure mode.
Moreover, the cleavage plane was basically the
same as the schistosity plane of the rock samples.
Apart from the characteristic of primary cleavage
plane, scatter-extrusion-complex failure planes
occurred on the two ends or parts in the middle of
the samples due to the developed schistosity
plane. The failure mode was displayed as several
Fig. 4 Failure modes of rock samples in the uniaxial compression test in the dry state. a S-1 rock samples under vertical loading, b S-2
rock samples under oblique loading and c S-3 rock samples under horizontal loading
fluctuations of the stress–strain curve. In addition,
the samples underwent the failure mode with
splitting failure on the one end and basically
undamaged another end and V-shaped failure
mode as well.
3.4 Relationship Between Strength Parameters
and Loading Directions
It can be seen from the test result that influenced by the
special structure of typical schistosity plane, uniaxial
compressive strength and elasticity modulus of soft
schist had relationships with the angle between
schistosity plane and loading direction. The strength
parameters of schist and the angle between schistosity
plane and loading direction were subjected to poly-
nomial curve fitting through least square method. The
results are shown in Figs. 5 and 6.
Based on the fitting results in Figs. 5 and 6, the
followings can be obtained:
1. There is a favorable fitting result between uniaxial
compressive strength r and loading angle h with a
correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.9701 and fitting
curve is a parabola going upwards. When there is a
small or large angle between schistosity plane and
loading direction, which are in parallel or vertical
spatial relationship, uniaxial compressive strength
lies around the both sides of the parabola.
However, in the case that there is a median size
angle (inclined at a certain angle) between schis-
tosity plane and loading direction, uniaxial com-
pressive strength is around the focus of the
parabola. The fitting correlation is shown as
follows:
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Test value correlation coefficient is R2 = 0.7769. Moreover,

80
Fit value
Uniaxial compressive / MPa

the fitting curve is approximately a parabola going

72 2
=0.02584 2.5036 +83.90635 upwards while the left half shows irregular shapes.
64 2
R =0.97012 However, the curve shows certain regularity on
56
the whole, and exhibits a similar characteristic
48 with the relationship between uniaxial compres-
40 sive strengths and loading angles.
32
24
E ¼ 0:00003495h3  0:00342h2 þ 0:003655h
16 þ 28:6960 ð2Þ
0 20 40 60 80 100
The angle between schistosity plane and loading direction /°
4 Triaxial Compression Test in the Dry State
Fig. 5 Relationship between uniaxial compressive strength r
and loading angle h
4.1 Test Results

30
E=0.00003495
3 2
0.00342 +0.003655 +28.69604 A triaxial compression test was performed by using
2
R =0.77693 three groups of rock samples in the dry state (two
Elasticity modulus /GPa

29 samples in each group). In addition, the tests for the

three groups of samples corresponded to the three
28 confining pressure levels: 5, 10 and 15 MPa. The test
results are displayed in Table 2 while the stress–strain
27 curves of triaxial compression of the six samples
Test value
Fit value
(three groups) are displayed in Figs. 7, 8 and 9.
26
4.2 Characteristics of Stress–Strain Curve
0 20 40 60 80 100
The angle between schistosity plane and loading direction /°
According to stress–strain curves obtained in the
Fig. 6 Relationship between elasticity modulus E and loading triaxial compression test of six rock samples shown in
angle Figs. 6, 7 and 8, it can be seen that with the increase of
confining pressures, the peak strength and post-peak
r ¼ 0:02584h2  2:5036h þ 83:9064 ð1Þ residual strength of soft schist greatly rose. Under the
condition of low confining pressure (5 MPa), the rock
2. The elasticity modulus E and loading angle h samples showed brittle failure while the strength at the
exhibit an ordinary fitting result and the residual stage slightly improved with a slight

Table 2 Results of triaxial compression test of soft schist in the dry state
Serial numbers Confining Axial pressure Elasticity Poisson’s Parameters of triaxial shear Failure modes
of rock pressure r1/(MPa) modulus ratio l strength/(MPa)
samples r3/(MPa) E/(GPa)
c/(MPa) u/(°)

S-4-1 5 51.82 34.78 0.251 2.12 48 Multi-shear failure

S-4-2 5 55.27 35.31 0.233 Single shear failure
S-5-1 10 94.68 38.95 0.304 Single shear failure
S-5-2 10 88.35 40.12 0.285 Multi-shear failure
S-6-1 15 178.32 46.28 0.264 V-shaped shear failure
S-6-2 15 166.25 45.74 0.272 Combination of shear
and splitting failures

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Fig. 7 Stress–strain curve

obtained in triaxial
compression test (confining
pressure: 5 MPa)

Fig. 8 Stress–strain curve

obtained in triaxial
compression test (confining
pressure: 10 MPa)

Fig. 9 Stress–strain curve

obtained in triaxial
compression test (confining
pressure: 15 MPa)

strengthening trend. With increasing confining pres-
sures (10 MPa), the curve at post-peak softening stage
changes steady, which indicates that the rock samples
had certain ductile characteristic. Moreover, the
stresses at residual stage significantly rose after the
failure of the rock samples, which suggests that the
damaged rocks had certain bearing capacity and the
peak and residual strengths largely increased. How-
ever, under a high confining pressure (15 MPa), the
increase amplitude of residual strength of rock sam-
ples began to improve, suggesting that the rock
samples exhibited significant ductile failure charac-
teristics. In addition, different from the result of
uniaxial tests (confining pressure around 0 MPa) that

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the surrounding rocks showed obvious brittle failure,
only the rock samples under low confining pressures
exhibited certain brittle failure in the triaxial com-
pression test. However, pre-peak tangential deforma-
tion significantly declined and the turning point of
volumetric change moved back to the peak point.
Furthermore, with increasing confining pressures, the
ductile characteristic during failures became gradually
clear, which indicates that the rock samples showed
significantly different mechanical properties from
those in the uniaxial test.
The repeated loading path was not exactly the same
as the original loading path, which indicates that the
pre-peak loading process on rocks had caused unre-
coverable plastic deformation (including compression
and yield deformation of original fractures). However,
the loading paths in the post-peak stage were basically
uniform with the unloading paths while the slopes of
the loading and unloading curves were also consistent
with those in the pre-peak elasticity stage. The result
indicates that under certain confining pressures, the
mechanical behaviors of fractured rock masses are
equivalent to those of elasto-plastic materials.
4.3 Failure Modes
Failure modes of triaxial compression of soft schist in
the dry state are displayed in Fig. 10. It can be seen
from the characteristics of failure modes that the
failure modes of schist in the dry state can be divided
into four types including single and multi-shear
failures, V-shaped shear failure and combination of
shear and splitting failures.
1. Single shear failure: the rock samples S-4-2 and
S-5-1 were subjected to single shear failure,
separately, as shown in Fig. 10a (the right), b
(the left). The failure mode takes up the majority
of the tests, which was also a primary failure
characteristic no matter what the angle was
between schistosity plane and axial loading
direction. The samples were damaged with a
primary shear plane running through the hook face
of the samples, so that the samples were divided
into two blocks in the triangle shape.
2. Multi-shear failure: the rock samples S-4-1 and
S-5-2 showed multi-shear failure, which are
separately displayed in Fig. 10a (the left), b (the
right). The failure mode occurred when
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schistosity plane exhibited an oblique angle with
the loading direction, accompanied with the
appearance of two or more primary shear planes.
Moreover, the primary shear failure planes were
approximately parallel and obliquely cut through
by splitting failure in local areas, which caused
that the entire test plane was damaged and the
samples after the failure exhibited a poor
integrality.
3. V-shaped shear failure: the rock sample S-6-1
exhibited the V-shear failure, as shown in Fig. 10c
(the left). The shear failure was rare and shown to
be axial V-shaped failure. The rupture surface
curve of one end gathered to the axial center of the
other end from the both sides, which caused that
the axial stresses on the sample was so concen-
trated that the sample was damaged. It was
speculated that this phenomenon was correlated
with the non-uniform distribution of mineral
components.
4. Combination of shear and splitting failures: the
rock sample S-6-2 showed the combination of
shear and splitting failures, as illustrated in
Fig. 10c (the right). The failure mode appeared
when the schistosity plane approximately paral-
leled to the loading direction, and was character-
ized by a primary shear plane crossing the whole
rock sample. Moreover, cleavage planes approx-
imately parallel to the axial direction of the
sample appeared in the rock after the shear failure.
In addition, combination of shear and splitting
failures contributed to the failure of the entire
sample.
4.4 Relationship Between Triaxial Compressive
Strengths and Confining Pressures
It can be seen from the test result that under confining
pressures, the deformation characteristics of schist had
some disparities with those in uniaxial test. On the
whole, the triaxial compressive strength r1 increased
with increasing confining pressure r3. The linear
fitting between the triaxial compressive strength r1
and the confining pressure r3 is shown in Fig. 11.
It can be seen from the fitting result in Fig. 11 that
the triaxial compressive strength r1 and the confining
pressure r3 are favorably fit with a correlation
coefficient of R2 = 0.9401. The fitting curve is a
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Fig. 10 Failure modes of the rock samples in the triaxial compression in the dry state. a Under confining pressure of 5 MPa, b under
confining pressure of 10 MPa and c under confining pressure of 15 MPa

influence of water on mechanical property of soft

Triaxial compressive strength / MPa

200
=11.874 12.9583 rocks.
175 1 3
2
R =0.9401 5.1 Test Results
150

125 Test value

100
75
50
25
0 5
Confining pressure / MPa
Fig. 11 Fitting relationship between the axial compressive
strength r1 and the confining pressure r3
linear straight, which illustrates that the triaxial
compressive strength r1 linearly increases with the
increasing confining pressure r3.
r1 ¼ 11:874r3  12:9583
5 Triaxial Compression Test with Different
Moisture Contents
Soft schist is easily to soften, slime and swell while
contacting water, so some rock samples were chosen
to be immersed in water for different times. A triaxial
compression test was conducted under different
moisture contents and then the test result was
compared with that in the dry state to study the
Fit value A triaxial compression test was performed with
different moisture contents by using five groups of
rock samples (three samples in each group). The first
four groups were separately immersed for 1–4 days
and the fifth group was in the natural state for
convenient comparison. In addition, the three samples
10 15 20 in each group were subjected to the three levels of
confining pressure: 5, 10 and 15 MPa. The test results
are displayed in Table 3 while the stress–strain curves
acquired in the triaxial compression test of the fifteen
samples (five groups) are displayed in Figs. 12, 13 and
14.
5.2 Characteristics of Stress–Strain Curves
ðr3 [ 0Þ ð3Þ It can be seen from the test result that the peak
strengths separately in natural and water-bearing
states increased with the increasing confining pres-
sures. However, the peak strength in water-bearing
state was 40% lower than that in natural state under
same confining pressure, exhibiting a significant
strength difference. The maximal axial stress of the
samples in natural state reached 53.51 MPa under low
confining pressures while it can reach 164.73 MPa
under high confining pressures. However, the axial
stress of the samples in the group S9 with the
maximum moisture content was only 32.43 MPa
under low confining pressures and 91.83 MPa under

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Table 3 Results of triaxial compression test with different moisture contents

Group numbers Serial numbers Confining Axial pressure Moisture E/(Gpa) l
of rock sample pressure r3/(MPa) r1/(MPa) contents x/(%)

S7 (immersed for 1 day) S-7-1 5 38.13 0.52 24.84 0.366

S-7-2 10 66.28 0.53 21.57 0.314
S-7-3 15 106.34 0.49 24.35 0.343
S8 (immersed for 2 day) S-8-1 5 44.56 0.47 30.42 0.292
S-8-2 10 56.28 0.58 17.33 0.247
S-8-3 15 134.75 0.40 35.93 0.321
S9 (immersed for 3 day) S-9-1 5 32.43 0.62 21.53 0.302
S-9-2 10 74.36 0.45 29.17 0.384
S-9-3 15 91.83 0.61 22.54 0.265
S10 (immersed for 4 day) S-10-1 5 46.35 0.43 31.75 0.277
S-10-2 10 60.28 0.54 20.68 0.252
S-10-3 15 123.65 0.51 28.52 0.302
S11 (natural state) S-11-1 5 53.51 0.36 35.36 0.185
S-11-2 10 92.66 0.23 38.43 0.243
S-11-3 15 164.73 0.19 46.28 0.227

Fig. 12 Stress–strain curve obtained in the triaxial compres- Fig. 14 Stress–strain curve obtained in the triaxial compres-
sion test with different moisture contents (under confining sion test with different moisture contents (under confining
pressure of 5 MPa) pressure of 15 MPa)

high confining pressures, which suggests that moisture

Fig. 13 Stress–strain curve obtained in the triaxial compres-
sion test with different moisture contents (under confining
pressure of 10 MPa)
contents exert a significant influence on the triaxial
compressive strength of the samples.
It can be seen from stress–strain curves that the
samples both in natural and water-bearing states were
mainly damaged by ductile failure and the pre-peak
curves show the same characteristic as post-peak ones.
However, the samples in natural state exhibited certain
brittle failure characteristics in post-peak phase.
Moreover, with the increase of confining pressures,
the post-peak curve became gentle after certain brittle
failures, while the post-peak stresses showed an
insignificant change as the confining pressures rose.

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The samples in water-bearing state exhibited a signif- (a)

Triaxial compressive strength / MPa

60 Test value
icant post-peak disparity with strong ductile failure Fit value
characteristics, and the peak curve obviously fluctu- 55
ated under low confining pressures. = 81.6466 +82.1864
50 2
R =0.9748
45
5.3 Relationship Between Strength Parameters
40
and Moisture Contents of Schist
35
The triaxial compressive strength with different
30
moisture contents was fitted with the elasticity mod- 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
ulus and the result is shown in Fig. 15. Moisture content / °
Based on the fitting relationship between the (b)

Triaxial compressive strength / MPa

Test value
triaxial compressive strength r1 and the moisture 95
Fit value
content x, the followings can be obtained. 90
85 = 101.1075 +117.0881
1
1. Under the confining pressure of 5 MPa, 80
2
R =0.9576
r1 = -81.6466x ? 82.1864, R2 = 0.9748; 75
2. Under the confining pressure of 10 MPa, 70
r1 = -101.1075x ? 117.0881, R2 = 0.9576; 65
3. Under the confining pressure of 15 MPa, 60
r1 = -169.2122x ? 198.7134, R2 = 0.8948. 55

There are favorable fitting correlation coefficients 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
under the confining pressures of different levels, Moisture content / °
(c)
Triaxial compressive strength / MPa

which showed that the linear relationship can be 170 Test value
considered as the correlation curve between the 160 Fit value
triaxial compressive strength and moisture contents 150
= 169.2122 +198.7134
1
of soft schist. The universal expression is shown as 140 2
R =0.9748
follows: 130
120
r1 ¼ Ax þ B; A\0; B [ 0 ð4Þ
110
where, A and B refer to the slope and the increment of 100
fitting curves, respectively (Fig. 16). 90
Similarly, the elasticity moduli of schist with 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
different moisture contents were fitted and the Moisture content / °
obtained result is displayed as follows:
Based on the fitting relationship between the Fig. 15 Relationship between the triaxial compressive strength
r1 and the moisture content x. a Under confining pressure of
elasticity modulus E and the moisture content x in 5 MPa, b under confining pressure of 10 MPa and c under
the triaxial test, the followings can be obtained. confining pressure of 15 MPa

1. Under the confining pressure of 5 MPa,

E = -55.6833x ? 55.5080, R2 =
2. Under the confining pressure
E = -59.2177x ? 53.0315, R2 =
3. Under the confining pressure of 15 MPa,
0.9517;
E = -59.3775x ? 57.6501, R2 = 0.9141.
of 10 MPa,
0.9501; The fitting correlation coefficients under the con-
fining pressure of different levels are all larger than

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 Geotech Geol Eng

(a) E ¼ Ax þ B; A\0; B [ 0 ð5Þ

36 Test value
Fit value where, A and B represent the slope and the increment
of fitting curves, respectively.
Elastic Modulus / GPa

E= 55.6833ω+55.5080
32 2
R =0.9517

28
6 Conclusions

By conducting the experiment for mechanical proper-

24
ties of soft rocks, the mechanical properties and
deformation failure law of soft schist in the dry state or
20
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 with different moisture contents were studied. The
Moisture content / ° research provides a scientific basis for analyzing the
(b) deformation law of surrounding rocks of tunnels.
45
Test value Moreover, the following conclusions can be obtained:
40 Fit value
Elastic Modulus / GPa

1. By carrying out uniaxial compressive test in the

E= 59.2177 +53.0315
35
2
dry state, it can be seen that the rock samples
R =0.9501
showed favorable elastic characteristics in pre-
30
peak area while the peak point and post-peak
25 softening stage sustained for an extremely short
stable time. The rock samples were instanta-
20
neously damaged and just remained extremely
15 low bearing capacity. The rock samples with
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
different angles between the schistosity plane and
Moisture content / °
(c) the loading direction all exhibited strain-softening
50 characteristics, which were divided into five
Test value
Fit value stages including compression, elasticity, plastic-
45
Elastic Modulus / GPa

E= 59.3775 +57.6501 ity, strain-softening and friction stages. In addi-

40
35
30
25
20
0.1
Fig. 16 Relationship between the elasticity modulus E and the
moisture content x. a Under confining pressure of 5 MPa,
b under confining pressure of 10 MPa and c under confining
pressure of 15 MPa
0.9, showing a favorable fitting precision, which
indcates that the linear relationship can be regarded
as the correlation curve between the elasticity modulus
and moisture contents of soft schist. Similar to the
expression between the uniaxial compressive strength
and the moisture content, the relationship between the
elasticity modulus and the moisture content can be
expressed as follows:
2 tion, failure modes were divided into three types
R =0.9141
including splitting failure running through schis-
tosity plane, shear failure along schistosity plane
and axial splitting failure.
2. It can be seen from the triaxial compression test in
the dry state that brittle failure occurred under low
confining pressures while the strengths in residual
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
stage slightly improved. With the improvement of
Moisture content / °
confining pressures, the curve of post-peak soft-
ening stage mildly changed, which indicates that
the damaged rocks still exhibited certain bearing
capacity. Moreover, the increase amplitude of
residual strengths of the rock samples under high
confining pressures increasingly rose and the rock
samples showed significant ductile failure. The
repeated loading path was not completely the
same as the original loading path, which suggests
that the pre-peak loading had caused unrecover-
able plastic deformation to the rocks. The failure
modes in the triaxial compressive test in the dry
state included single and multi-shear failures,

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Geotech Geol Eng
V-shaped shear failure and combination of shear
and splitting failures
3. By conducting the triaxial compression test for
soft rocks with different moisture contents, it can
be seen that the peak strengths in both the natural
and water-bearing states rose with the increasing
confining pressures. However, the peak strengths
of the latter were 40% lower than those of the
former. The samples in natural state exhibited a
certain post-peak brittle failure while the post-
peak curve became gentle gradually after certain
brittle failure as the confining pressures constantly
rose. In addition, the samples in water-bearing
state showed a significant post-peak disparity,
with strong ductile failure.
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