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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.

Sec. Solid Earth Geophysics

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1661900

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Development of Underground Resources - Volume IIView all 3 articles

Cyclic impact experimental study on the mechanical behavior of sandstone subjected to freeze-thaw cycles

Provisionally accepted
Li  TaoLi Tao1Wu  PengWu Peng2*Shanchao  HuShanchao Hu3Wu  BoyuanWu Boyuan1Chen  ZhanqingChen Zhanqing1
  • 1State Key Laboratory of Deep Geotechnical Mechanics and Underground Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China
  • 2Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China
  • 3CCTEG Chongqing Research Institute, Chongqing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The sandstone in open-pit coal mines frequently experiences freeze-thaw cycles and cyclic impact loads. To investigate the strength, deformation, and damage evolution laws of freeze-thaw sandstone under cyclic impacts, cyclic impact experiments was conducted by SHPB. The failure mode was further elucidated by high-speed camera technology and SEM. The results indicate that: (1) The number of impacts, peak stress, and elastic modulus are negatively correlated with the number of freeze-thaw cycles. With the impacts times increasing, the peak stress and elastic modulus of sandstone initially decline gradually before plummeting sharply in the final few loadings. (2) With freeze-thaw cycles and impact quantity increasing, dissipated energy and reflected energy increase, whereas transmitted energy decreases. (3) The failure mode of sandstone is characterized by tensile failure, with cracks initially forming on the sample's side, then propagating radially and ultimately penetrating the entire specimen. Freeze-thaw exacerbate the fragmentation of sandstone, and induce a transition from transgranular to intergranular failure. (4) As the quantity of impacts increases, the damage factor of sandstone initially rises slowly and then accelerates rapidly, which aligns with the evolution law of the peak stress of sandstone. These findings provide valuable reference for ensuring safe mining operations. Keywords:sandstone;freeze-thaw cycles;cyclic impact;failure mode;damage evolution

Keywords: sandstone, Freeze-thaw cycles, Cyclic impact, Failure mode, Damage evolution

Received: 08 Jul 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Tao, Peng, Hu, Boyuan and Zhanqing. 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: Wu Peng, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China

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