Plasticity and Damage Analysis of Berea Sandstone via Cyclic Triaxial Loading Under High Confinement Pressure Available to Purchase

This work presents, uniaxial and triaxial compression tests of Berea sandstone (BST) under different levels of confining pressure (CP) where the axial and lateral strains are measured in addition to the axial stress. Based on these experiments, the influence of the CP on the mechanical behavior and the damage mechanics of BST is investigated. Results reveal a strong influence of the applied CP on the strength of the material; where BST switches from brittle to ductile due to the presence of the CP. Damage controlled tests are exploited to quantify the evolution of plasticity and damage as a function of the applied axial load, as well as the CP level. Experimental analysis imparts damage and plasticity rates with respect to the applied axial load to get lower as the CP increases. The proposed experimental methodology in this work of damage and plasticity quantification delivers a baseline blueprint to refine triaxial experimental data for the sake of accurate calibration of advanced constitutive laws.