In order to investigate the influence of temperature, confining pressure, and preexisting fissure on creep characteristics of rock mass, multistage creep experiments were performed on shale‐like material, with preexisting fissure under different temperatures and confining pressures. The results showed that new microcracks generated and propagated with the increase of temperature in both uniaxial and triaxial creep experiments, and the generation and propagation were most pronounced at 60°C and least at 20∼50°C in uniaxial creep experiments. The generation and propagation were restricted by confining pressure. Temperature had less influence on the creep strain rate in triaxial creep experiment, whereas it had a significant influence on the steady‐state creep rate in uniaxial creep experiment. The influence of confining pressure on the steady‐state creep rate was slight when confining pressure was 1 MPa, whereas it was obvious when confining pressure was 3∼7 MPa. The closure of preexisting fissure promoted the creep strain rate, and the closure was incomplete when confining pressure was below 3 MPa, whereas it was complete when confining pressure at 5 and 7 MPa.

In this paper, destructive compression tests under the coupled influence of temperatures (20–60 °C) and confining pressures (0–7 MPa) were carried out on rock-like material with pre-existing crack to explore the deformation and strength characteristics. The stress–strain curves of rock-like material under the coupled influence of temperatures and confining pressures were obtained. Meanwhile, the correlations of peak stress, peak strain, and average Young’s modulus with temperatures and confining pressures were obtained. The results of the experiments indicate that, firstly, the compressive strength decreased and the deformation increased due to the influence of pre-existing cracks; the combined effect of initial cracks, temperature, and confining pressure gave rise to a more complicated mechanism of soft rock deformation. Secondly, the deformation of rock-like material was affected by initial cracks, confining pressures, and temperatures, but the influence of temperature was lower than that of confining pressure and initial crack. The failure mode of rock-like material was brittle at the confining pressure of 0 and 1 MPa and plastic at the confining pressure of 5 and 7 MPa. The critical confining pressure value of failure mode for rock-like material was 3 MPa. Thirdly, the peak strength and peak strain of rock-like material increased with confining pressure. Temperature had less influence on the rock-like material strength and peak strain than confining pressure. Lastly, Young’s modulus decreased with temperature and confining pressure.

The investigation of the mechanical properties of rock mass can be effectively carried out through rock-like material experiments. In this study, polystyrene foam particles were utilized as a novel material for simulating initial damage within rocks. Our research involved the development of sandstone-like materials with comparable mechanical properties to actual sandstone. These materials were then subjected to orthogonal mechanical tests, allowing us to identify the key factors that have a substantial impact on the mechanical parameters of sandstone-like rocks. The influencing factors considered in the orthogonal mechanical tests were the proportion of aggregate and binder, the proportion of polystyrene foam in the entire model, the proportion of binder and regulator, and the size of polystyrene foam. Five levels were set for each factor, and mechanical parameters such as compressive strength, tensile strength, elastic modulus, axial strain, and Poisson’s ratio were tested for each group of samples. The changes in mechanical parameters with the levels of the above four factors were studied. The study found that modifying the proportion of aggregate to binder can alter the elastic modulus, tensile strength, and compressive strength values of sandstone-like material. The size of polystyrene foam can be modified to alter the axial strain values of sandstone-like materials. Additionally, adjusting the ratio of binder and regulator can modify the value of Poisson’s ratio. The comparison of mechanical parameters between sandstone-like samples and sandstone reveals that sandstone-like materials can better simulate the deformation and failure mechanisms of sandstone. The error in the main mechanical parameters, such as modulus of elasticity, strength, and Poisson’s ratio, is less than 7%, indicating a greater resemblance between sandstone-like materials and sandstone. Therefore, sandstone-like materials can be used to investigate the deformation law, damage evolution law, and failure mechanism of sandstone. This can help alleviate the difficulty of obtaining specimens of deep damaged rock and the high cost of testing.

In order to investigate the effect of fissure inclination on the mechanical properties, deformation, and crack evolution of the surrounding rock in the roadway, uniaxial compression experiments were conducted on sandstone-like materials with prefabricated fissures. The high-speed camera and DIC (digital image correlation) method were employed to analyze the strain distribution and the crack evolution of the specimen. The results demonstrated that the presence of fissures reduces the stress for crack initiation, with intact specimens producing new cracks from about 75% of peak strength and fissured specimens producing new cracks from 50% to 60% of peak strength. The fissure reduced the strength and elastic modulus of the specimen while increasing the strain. The fissure inclination of 45° exhibited the most significant changes compared to the intact specimen. The peak strength and elastic modulus decreased by 54.52% and 35.95%, respectively, and the strain increased by 151.42%. The intact specimen and specimen with 90° inclination are mainly distributed with the shear crack, tensile crack, and far-field crack, which are mainly tensile–tension damage; specimens with 0~75° inclination are mainly distributed with the wing crack, anti-wing crack, oblique secondary crack, and coplanar secondary crack, which are mainly shear slip damage. The direction of the extension of cracks is related to the fissure inclination. For specimens with 0° inclination, the new cracks mainly propagate in the direction perpendicular to the fissure; for specimens with 30° and 45° inclinations, the new cracks mainly propagate in the direction parallel and perpendicular to the fissure; for specimens with 60° and 75° inclinations, the new cracks propagate in the direction parallel to the fissure; and for specimens with 90° inclination, the new cracks propagate in the direction parallel to the fissure.

The Ti-6Al-4V alloy is a typical α + β type titanium alloy and is widely used in the manufacture of aero-engine fans, compressor discs and blades. The working life of modern aero-engine components is usually required to reach more than 10⁸ cycles, which makes the infinite life design based on the traditional fatigue limit unsafe. In this study, through symmetrical loading high-cycle fatigue tests on Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy, a nonlinear cumulative damage life prediction model was established. Further very-high-cycle fatigue tests of titanium alloys were carried out. The variation law of plastic strain energy in the evolution process of very-high-cycle fatigue damage of titanium alloy materials was described by introducing the internal stress parameter. A prediction model for the very-high-cycle fatigue life of titanium alloys was established, and the sensitivity analysis of model parameters was carried out. The results show that the established high-cycle/very-high-cycle fatigue models can fit the test data well. Moreover, based on the optimized model parameters through sensitivity analysis, the average error of the prediction results has decreased from 59% to 38%. The research aims to provide a model or method for predicting the engineering life of titanium alloys in the high-cycle/very-high-cycle range.