Hot dry rock is developed by injecting cold water into high-temperature rock mass. At the same time, cold water is heated in contact with the rock mass. With the continuous influx of cold water, the surrounding rock will undergo a rapid cooling process, which results in several cycles of heating and cooling. However, there is little research on the influence of cycles of heating and cooling with circulating water on the mechanical properties of rock, which is of great importance to the stability of rock mass engineering in the process of energy development. In this paper, the effects of cyclic heating and cooling with circulating water on the damage of granite are studied using uniaxial compressive, Brazilian and acoustic emission (AE) tests. The results show that heat treatment temperature and number of cycles have important effects on the mechanical properties of granite as follows: (1) at the same treatment temperature, an increase in the number of cycles means that the distribution of physical and mechanical parameters of the granite show an almost exponential downward trend. The uniaxial compression of granite results in its transformation from brittle to plastic, and the failure mode changes from slipping of the shear surface to plastic failure. With increased cycles of heating and cooling with circulating water, the tensile strength of granite also decreases; temperature has an obvious influence on physical and mechanical parameters, cracking of samples, and plays a controlling role in the failure mode of samples. In addition, (2) at the same temperature, the heating and cooling numbers N have a significant influence on the AE distribution characteristics of the sample under uniaxial compression and the number of AE collisions, and the cumulative number of AE decreases with the increase of N. (3) The concepts of mechanical damage and high-temperature and cold-water shock damage during uniaxial compression of samples were proposed based on AE, and the damage equations were established respectively. The curve equations of damage value (D) and cycle numbers N after thermal shock damage of high temperature and cold water were overlaid. The cracking mechanism of high-temperature and cold water impact on granite was analyzed, and the thermal shock stress equation of high temperature and water cooling was established.

It is of great significance, for economic, environmental and security reasons, to investigate the strength characteristic of underground cemented paste backfill (CPB). Consequently, an ultrasonic test, uniaxial and triaxial compression experiment, and acoustic emission (AE) monitoring were carried out on CPB, for which the particles satisfied Talbot gradation. The homogeneity of CPB specimens was evaluated by ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV). The stress–strain behavior and AE characteristic of CPB specimens under different Talbot indices and confining pressures were investigated. The effects of the particle size distribution and the confining pressure on the peak strength of CPB were analyzed. The strength parameter model of CPB under the coupled influence of the particle size distribution and the confining pressure was constructed based on the Mohr–Coulomb strength criterion. The results show that the peak strength of CPB is positively linear with confining pressure, however, the relationship between its strength parameters and the Talbot index can be characterized by a quadratic polynomial function. This suggests that there is an optimal gradation of particles reflected in the maximum strength of CPB.

It is of great significance for engineering safety, economic benefits, environmental protection, and sustainable development to investigate the strata stability in filling mining with cemented rockfill. Consequently, this paper is based on a specific coal mine where we applied the fully-mechanized longwall mining and filling and designed a cemented rockfill material for which the particles satisfied the Talbot gradation. Uniaxial and triaxial compression experiments were carried out on the cemented rockfill specimen, which obtained the relations between the mechanical parameters (Poisson ratio, elastic modulus, compressive strength, cohesive force, internal friction angle, and tensile strength) and the particle size distribution of the aggregate. The excavation and filling processes in the coal seam were simulated based on the numerical software FLAC^3D. The characteristics of the displacement and stress fields of the strata when the goaf was filled by cemented rockfill with different granule gradations were discussed. The influences of the particle size distribution and mining distance on the maximum subsidence displacement of the coal seam roof, internal stress of the backfill, and the stress of the rock mass in the coalface were analyzed. The feasibility and effectiveness of the filling mining with cemented rockfill to protect the integrity of the overlying strata were discussed. The results showed that optimizing the particle size distribution of the aggregate in cemented rockfill could increase the loading capacity of the backfill to improve the filling effect, effectively control the strata movement, and decrease the stress of rock mass in the coalface to reduce the potential danger.

Due to the complex formation process of a rock mass, a large number of fissures, joints, faults, other defects exist and the defects commonly contain infilled materials. The jointed rock masses are in a complex geological environment, in which the geometric distribution and the boundary condition can greatly affect the mechanical behavior of the infilled jointed rock mass. In this study, the infilled jointed rock mass specimens with different dip angles are prepared using similar materials, and the uniaxial and biaxial compression tests on the specimens are conducted. The effect of the joint dip angle on the mechanical behavior of the infilled jointed rock mass under uniaxial and biaxial compressions is investigated. The results show that the uniaxial compressive strength shows a W-shaped variation, and the biaxial compressive strength shows a V-shaped variation with an increase in the dip angle. Most of the cracks appear in pairs around the joint and occur symmetrically in a bilateral distribution, and the existence of the infilled joints induces a nonlinear mechanical behavior in the specimen. In addition, the specimens exhibit three failure modes under uniaxial compression: splitting failure, step-path failure and planar failure. The specimens present two failure modes under biaxial compression: splitting failure and planar failure.

For many rock engineering projects, the stress of surrounding rocks is constantly increasing and decreasing during excavating progress and the long-term operation stage. Herein, the triaxial creep behavior of dolomitic limestone subjected to cyclic incremental loading and unloading was probed using an advanced rock mechanics testing system (i.e., MTS815.04). Then, the instantaneous elastic strain, instantaneous plastic strain, visco-elastic strain, and visco-plastic strain components were separated from the total strain curve, and evolutions of these different types of strain with deviatoric stress increment were analyzed. Furthermore, a damage variable considering the proportion of irrecoverable plastic strain to the total strain was introduced, and a new nonlinear multi-element creep model was established by connecting the newly proposed damage viscous body in series with the Hookean substance, St. Venant body, and Kelvin element. The parameters of this new model were analyzed. The findings are listed as follows: (1) When the deviatoric stress is not more than 75% of the compressive strength, only instantaneous deformation, transient creep, and steady-state creep deformation occur, rock deformation is mainly characterized by the instantaneous strain, whereas the irrecoverable instantaneous plastic strain accounts for 38.02–60.27% of the total instantaneous strain; (2) Greater deviatoric stress corresponds to more obvious creep deformation. The visco-elastic strain increases linearly with the increase of deviatoric stress, especially the irrecoverable visco-plastic strain increases exponentially with deviatoric stress increment, and finally leads to accelerated creep and delayed failure of the sample; (3) Based on the experimental data, the proposed nonlinear creep model is verified to describe the full creep stage perfectly, particularly the tertiary creep stage. These results could deepen our understanding of the elasto-visco-plastic deformation behavior of dolomitic limestone and have theoretical and practical significance for the safe excavation and long-term stability of underground rock engineering.