ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Geohazards and Georisks
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1636234
This article is part of the Research TopicNatural Hazards Accompanying Underground Exploitation of Mineral Raw MaterialsView all 8 articles
Experimental study on the mechanical properties of freeze-thaw cycled sandstone under dynamic loading
Provisionally accepted
- 1Kunming Prospecting Design Institute of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Co., Ltd, Kunming, Yunnan 650051, China, Kunming, China
- 2China University of Geosciences Wuhan, Wuhan, China
- 3Guangdong Construction Engineering Quality & Safety Testing Head Station Co., Ltd, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510500, China, Guangdong, China
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China's western alpine regions are rich in mineral resources. However, factors such as freeze-thaw erosion, earthquakes, rainfall, and mining disturbances have weakened the strength of rock masses in alpine mine slopes, leading to structural weathering. These issues severely compromise the safety and stability of rock slopes and hinder the safe, efficient production of mineral resources. Both impact loads (such as blasting) and seismic loads can induce instantaneous deformation in structures and their components, sharing similar mechanisms of action. Therefore, this study conducts dynamic impact tests on sandstone based on the research context of impact loads including seismic events and excavation blasting. This study focuses on the Lanping Lead-Zinc Mine. First, through freeze-thaw cycle tests, SHPB (Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar) impact tests, and DIC (Digital Image Correlation) technology, the impact mechanical responses and failure characteristics of sandstone specimens under different freeze-thaw cycles were investigated. The dynamic mechanical properties and crack propagation patterns of sandstone under impact loading at various freeze-thaw cycles were revealed. The findings indicate that the strain rate ε´-t curve of sandstone specimens under dynamic impact is characterized by "increasing-stabilizing-accelerating decrease". The strain (ε-t) curve initially increases before stabilizing, and the peak strain rises with the number of freeze-thaw cycles. The stressstrain response of sandstone under impact loading can generally be divided into three stages: linear elastic, nonlinear hardening, and strain softening. The slope of the stress-strain curve in the elastic stage decreases as the number of freeze-thaw cycles increases. The dynamic peak stress and dynamic elastic modulus of sandstone gradually decrease with increasing freeze-thaw cycles. Analysis of the dynamic evolution of Y-directional strain in sandstone specimens under impact loading using DIC technology reveals that crack propagation is closely linked to strain concentration zones on the specimen surface. The distribution of axial strain concentration zones determines the initiation and expansion of primary and secondary cracks during specimen failure. The conclusions of this study
Keywords: Rocky mine slopes, Freeze-thaw cycles, Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB), Digital image correlation (DIC), Alpine regions, sandstone
Received: 27 May 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Sui, Zou, Bao, Tian, He and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Junpeng Zou, China University of Geosciences Wuhan, Wuhan, China
Quan Zhang, China University of Geosciences Wuhan, Wuhan, China
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