Effect of wet-dry cycles on disintegration characteristics of clay-bearing sandstone with UF cracks

UF cracks in rock masses commonly occur due to the unloading effect, which constantly happens after the variation of in-situ stress field or rock excavation. When undergoing periodic water fluctuation, rock mass with UF cracks is vulnerable to deterioration or even disintegration, especially for clay-bearing sandstone. To study the effect of changes in moisture on rock samples with UF cracks, clay-bearing sandstone from the Triassic Badong group in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area were chosen and investigated. The rock samples with UF cracks are obtained by conducting triaxial unloading confining pressure experiment. The effect of wet-dry cycles on the morphology properties and microstructure of the UF surface was investigated. The characteristics of particle-size uniformity from the sieve test were obtained by the calculation of RMS of particle contents. The test results show that UF cracks widen significantly and the disintegrated mass increases rapidly in the first three wet-dry cycles, while the fractal dimension of UF surface decreases sharply, but afterwards the disintegrated mass changes gently and the UF surface tends to be flat and smooth. Then, the RMS calculation of particle contents quantitatively evaluate the clay-bearing sandstone’s disintegration properties, which indicate the particle uniformity plays a key role on its disintegration mechanism. During wet-dry cycles, the tested samples tend to disintegrate more rapidly and entirely with the decrease of particle uniformity.