J. Cent. South Univ. Technol.

(2007)02−0210−06
DOI: 10.1007/s11771−007−0042−z

Strength and elastic properties of sandstone under different testing conditions

CHEN Yun-ping(陈运平)1,2, WANG Si-jing(王思敬)1, WANG En-zhi(王恩志)1

(1. State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;
2. Computational Geosciences Research Centre, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China)

Abstract: A laboratory experimental program performed on Wuhan sandstones was presented under monotonic loading, partial
cyclic loading during loading path and sine wave cyclic loading with different strain rates to compare uniaxial compression strength
and elastic properties (elastic modulus and Poisson ratio) under different conditions and influence of pore fluid on them. When the
loading strain rates are 10−5, 10−4 and 10−3/s, uniaxial compression strengths of dry sandstones are 82.3, 126.6 and 141.6 MPa,
respectively, and that of water saturated sandstones are 70.5, 108.3 and 124.1 MPa, respectively. The above results show that the
uniaxial compression strength increases with the increase of strain rate, however, variation of softening coefficient is insignificant.
Under monotonic loading condition, tangent modulus increases with an increment of stress (strain) to a maximum value at a certain
stress level, beyond which it starts to decline. Under the partial cyclic loading during loading path condition, unloading or reloading
modulus is larger than loading modulus, and unloading and reloading moduli are almost constants with respect to stress level,
especially unloading modulus. Under the sine wave cyclic loading condition, tangent modulus and Poisson ratio display asymmetric
‘X’ shape with various strain, and the average unloading modulus is larger than the average loading modulus.

Key words: strain rate; strength; deformation modulus; Poisson ratio; softening coefficient; rock

Fatigue strength of rock subjected to cyclic loading

1 Introduction
A granular material such as sandstone subjected to
an external stress displays complex stress—strain
characteristics of nonlinearity, hysteresis and stress-
induced anisotropy[1−4], which are mainly caused by
nonlinear deformation and frictional sliding of grain
contacts.
Design of pillars, underground caverns, support,
drilling, blast, freight highway and so on, requires
understanding and research of rock mechanical
properties under various loading conditions[5]. Strain can
be changed in a few seconds, such as blast and
earthquake, or in a few decades, such as formation of
coals. The rock mechanical characteristics would be of
distinct difference under different strain rates. In recent
rock engineering designs, rock mechanical behaviors
under different strain rates have been paid much
attention[6−7]. Rock physical and mechanical properties
under cyclic loading can be different from that under
monotonic loading, such as stress-strain loop, weakening
or strengthening (strain hardening) of compressive
strength[2,8−9]. Hence it is helpful to investigate rock
cyclic loading in engineering design for stabilizing
structure and eliminating accidental breakage.
can be applied to rockburst prediction. Elastic constants
(elastic modulus and Poisson ratio) are basic mechanical
properties that is necessary to be considered in rock
engineering project analysis and design, and they are
widespread applied to simulation technique to predict
stress and strain behavior of rock subjected to various
loading conditions. The objective of the experiment is to
study the elastic modulus and Poisson ratio under
different types of loading-unloading with different strain
rates.
2 Experimental
2.1 Specimen processing and experimental set-up
Testing materials were quartz sandstones from
Wuhan, China, whose composition was 86% of quartz,
8% of feldspar, and 6% of others. The physical properties
of rock samples included air-dry density of 2.59×103
kg/m3, porosity of 5.34%, and permeability of 7.45×
10−15 m2. The cylindrical rock samples for uniaxial
compression tests, 50 mm in diameter and 100 mm in
length with ends ground flat and parallel to within 2.5×
10−2 mm, were cored from intact blocks. All the bedding
of sandstone should be parallel to the end of specimen to
avoid the influence of bedding orientation on rock’s

Foundation item: Project(Z110510) supported by Opening Research Foundation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Rock and Soil
Mechanics; Project(20060390473) supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foudation; Project(40172084) supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China
Received date: 2006−06−21; Accepted date: 2006−08−27
Corresponding author: CHEN Yun-ping, PhD; Tel: 86-10-62784444; E-mail: chyp@tsinghua.edu.cn
 CHEN Yun-ping, et al: Strength and elastic properties of sandstone under different testing conditions 211
properties[7,10]. Samples were placed in an oven at sandstones under various strain rates subjected to
120 ℃ for 48 h to make them dry, then were taken to monotonic loading. The axial compressive strength of
the vacuum chamber to vacuumize them. Some samples specimen ML01D1 is 83.3 MPa with strain rate of 10−5/s,
were chosen to infuse into distilled water for 24 h, when axial compressive strength of specimen ML02D1 is
the water saturated samples were removed from the 121.7 MPa with strain rate of 10−4/s, and axial
chamber, they were immediately weighed, and jacketed compressive strength of specimen ML03D1 is 148.5
with epoxy resin to avoid fluid dissipating. MPa with strain rate of 10−3/s. Axial compressive
An MTS 810, servo-controlled rock mechanics test strength increases with the increment of loading strain
system was used for uniaxial stress cycling tests with 250 rate.
kN compression loading capacity and 150 mm stroke, Sandstone is heterogeneous and the relationship of
and loading sensor precision excelled 0.5%. The system
stress — strain is not linear, hence modulus of
had strain-controlled loading frame, which was equipped
deformation can be measured by tangent modulus,
with a load cell. Rock specimen was mounted under the
average modulus and secant modulus[11]. Tangent
loading frame. Vertical displacement was measured by a
modulus (Et) is the slope of tangent line of one point in
ring assembly with linear variable differential
stress—strain curve; average modulus (E) is the slope of
transformer (LVDT) connecting sample endcaps via
fused quartz rods inside the pressure vessel, and lateral part of stress—strain curve that is almost straight line;
strain was measured by the strain gauge mounted to the and secant modulus (Es) is the ratio of stress to strain of
middle section of specimen. The load cell, LVDTs and one point in stress—strain curve.
strain gauge were connected to the computer system,
through which the program control of scheduled loading
spectrum will be realized and data will be acquired
automatically to the pointed file. During specimen
loading, loading time, distance between two ends of
specimen, loading cell, axial strain and lateral
displacement were continuously recorded.

2.2 Experimental procedure

2.2.1 Monotonic loading
Samples were loaded with strain rates of 10−5, 10−4
and 10−3/s, respectively until they were in failure. Dry
and water saturated samples were used to do this test.
Repetition was made three times for a type of test to
reduce the influence of individual discrepancy, since the
measurement result of axial compressive strength was
dispersive.
2.2.2 Partial cyclic loading during loading path Fig.1 Stress—strain curves of dry sandstones under different
The specimen was loaded to some stress level with strain rate conditions
strain rate of 10-4/s, and went along unloading-reloading 1— Specimen ML01D1, strain rate 10−5/s; 2—Specimen
cycle with amplitude of about 8 MPa (Approximately ML02D1, strain rate 10−4/s; 3—Specimen ML03D1,
9% of axial compressive strength). This test included strain rate 10−3/s
three cycles at different stress levels before the specimen
failed. Dry and water saturated samples were used to do Tangent modulus (Et), shown in Eqn.(1), is obtained
this test. Strain control loading was adopted in this test. by differentiating the formula that describes the
2.2.3 Sine wave cyclic loading relationship between the stress (σ) and axial strain (εa)
Sine wave whose dynamic loading was smaller than with respect to εa.
static loading was adopted in uniaxial compressive cyclic
loading. Stress amplitude was close to axial compressive
Et=∂σ/∂εa (1)
strength, and loading frequency was 5 Hz. Stress control
loading was adopted in this test, and sampling rate was Tangent Poisson ratio (υt), shown as Eqn.(2), is
100 point/cycle. obtained by the same way.
υt=−∂ε1/∂εa (2)
3 Result and analysis where εl is the lateral strain.
Fig.2 shows the tangent modulus (Et) and Poisson
3.1 Monotonic loading ratio (υt) with respect to axial strain under various strain
Fig.1 shows the stress — strain curves of dry rates. It can be seen that Et increases with increasing
212 J. Cent. South Univ. Technol. 2007, 14(2)
strain rate. These tangent moduli have the same
characteristics. Et increases with increasing axial strain
(thus increasing stress) until a certain level, beyond
which it starts to decrease. For the specimen of ML01D1,
tangent modulus changes from 24.3 GPa at the beginning
to 31.4 GPa of the maximum value, accordingly the
stress level changes from 0 to 56% of axial compressive
strength, and then it commences to decline until 21.1
GPa at the very point of failure. For specimens of
ML02D1 and ML03D1, tangent modulus can be marked
by 3 stages: ascending, smooth and descending stages.
However, tangent modulus of specimen ML01D1 is not
so evident. In the ascending stage, there are abundant of
voids and microcracks in the rock, and they gradually
close as subjected to applied force. During the smooth
stage, the rock displays approximate linear elastic and
the change of modulus is little. During the descending
stage, nonlinear deformation that is called ‘rock dilation’
increases, and the increment rate of strain picks up as the
rock reaches yielding strength. Anyway, rock gradually
becomes stiff and reaches maximum value, and then
gradually becomes soft. Contrary to regular changes of
tangent modulus, changes of Poisson ratio with respect to
strain are complex, as shown in Fig.2(b).
Axial compressive strength and elastic constants of
Fig.2 Tangent modulus and Poisson ratio vs strain
(a) Tangent modulus；(b) Poisson ratio
1— Specimen ML01D1, strain rate 10−5/s; 2—Specimen
ML02D1, strain rate 10−4/s; 3—Specimen ML03D1,
strain rate 10−3/s
dry and water saturated sandstones under various strain
rates are listed in Table 1. The intenerated degree of rock
can be expressed as softening coefficient Kp, Kp= σw/σd,
where σw is the axial compressive strength of water
saturated sandstone, and σd is the axial compressive
strength of dry sandstone. According to the tests,
softening coefficients of Wuhan sandstones are 85.7%,
85.5%, and 87.6% under the strain rates of 10−5, 10−4 and
10−3/s, respectively. It seems that there is little influence
of strain rate on softening coefficient. Elastic modulus of
water-saturated sandstone is smaller than that of dry
sandstone at the same strain rate, but the difference
between Poisson ratios of water-saturated and dry
sandstones is insignificant. It can be seen that Poisson
ratio of water-saturated sandstone is a little bigger than
that of dry sandstone.
Rate of crack propagation is much bigger than
loading rate in the porous saturated rock at the low strain
rate, which makes pore fluid in rock diffuse to expanded
cracks. The pore pressure becomes bigger and activity of
brittle micro-fracture in rock is increased that accelerates
expansion of cracks. Besides, existence of pore fluid
changes the physical state (e.g. softening of gelatine in
rock)[12], and weakens the link among rock grains. That’s
why strength and stiffness of water saturated rock is
lower than those of dry rock.
The elastic constants measured by the above 3
methods are various (see Table 1). Et50 and E show little
discrepancy but Es50 is smaller for about 18% than Et50
and E.
Experimental results show that the test data of
rock’s strength and elastic properties are scattered. These
facts are attributed to lithological property variation and
microcracks distribution in the rock specimens, and
perhaps to errors in alignment during sample preparation
and mounting in addition.
In these failure tests, we noted that the specimens
are broken into large fragments at low strain rates,
whereas they are broken into small fragments at high
strain rates, which means that the brittleness of
sandstones increases with the increase of strain rate. This
is consistent with the elastic modulus that increases with
the increase of strain rate. This is to be further certified
by designing some experiments.
3.2 Partial cyclic loading during loading path
Fig.3 shows the dry sandstone stress — strain
relationship of 3 cycles of unloading-reloading subjected
to different stress levels at strain rate of 10-4/s. The
uniaxial compressive strength is 93.7 MPa. Table 2 lists
the results of tangent moduli and Poisson ratios of
loading, unloading and reloading at the different stress
levels of unloading-reloading. It can be seen that the
unloading or reloading tangent modulus is larger than the
loading one, and their differences increase with
increasing stress level.
 CHEN Yun-ping, et al: Strength and elastic properties of sandstone under different testing conditions 213

Table 1 Uniaxial compression strength and elastic constants of sandstones under different strain rates

Fluid Strain σ/ σave/ Deformation of modulus/GPa Poisson Average of

Specimen No.
state rate/s MPa MPa Et50 Et50,ave E Eave Es50 Es50, ave ratio Poisson ratio

ML01D1 83.3 39.7 38.4 33.4 0.21

ML01D2 Dry 10-5 79.5 82.3 38.6 39.1 37.9 38.3 32.9 33.3 0.22 0.21
ML01D3 84.2 38.9 38.5 33.5 0.20

ML01W1 69.9 31.9 30.6 26.4 0.23

ML01W2 Water 10-5 67.7 70.5 33.0 34.8 30.3 32.7 26.2 28.6 0.25 0.23
ML01W3 73.8 39.4 36.1 32.1 0.22

ML02D1 121.7 49.2 49.4 46.4 0.19

ML02D2 Dry 10-4 133.2 126.6 51.8 50.1 52.2 50.8 49.9 47.9 0.16 0.17
ML02D3 124.9 49.3 50.9 47.5 0.16

ML02W1 112.9 47.1 48.0 44.0 0.17

ML02W2 Water 10-4 107.1 108.3 46.4 46.2 47.1 46.6 42.8 42.4 0.16 0.18
ML02W3 104.8 45.2 44.6 40.4 0.20

ML03D1 148.5 61.4 60.9 56.7 0.15

ML03D2 Dry 10-3 137.0 141.6 58.2 58.2 60.1 59.1 56.1 55.0 0.14 0.16
ML03D3 139.4 54.9 56.2 52.1 0.18

ML03W1 129.0 59.7 58.4 54.4 0.14

ML03W2 Water 10-3 125.1 124.1 53.1 55.5 52.0 54.4 48.5 50.6 0.16 0.16
ML03W3 118.3 53.6 52.7 48.8 0.18
ML is monotonic loading; 01 is strain rate of 10−5/s; 02 is strain rate of 10−4/s; 03 is strain rate of 10−3/s; D is dry sandstone; W is water-saturated sandstone; 1 is
first test; 2 is second test; 3 is third test; Et50 and Es50 are tangent and secant moduli when applied stress equals half of axial compressive strength.

Loading tangent modulus varies with stress level

because of the irreversible strain of rock at the loading
process. At the third cycle (79.8−87.3 MPa of stress
level), when the loading strength exceeds the yielding
strength, plastic deformation becomes evident, and rock
dilatancy appears, hence the loading tangent modulus
becomes smaller. Whereas there is little influence of
stress level on the loading or reloading tangent modulus,
especially the loading tangent modulus. On the other
hand, Poisson ratio is less affected by the loading,
unloading and reloading because the irreversible strains
exist in both the axial and lateral strains that are used to
compute the Poisson ratio. The Poisson ratios obtained
from the loading and unloading curves have less
Fig.3 Stress—strain curves of sandstone under partial cyclic variation than that obtained from the reloading curve.
loading during loading path The similar result was obtained with the water saturated
sandstone.
Table 2 Tangent modulus and Poisson ratio under partial cyclic Experiments with partial cyclic loading during
loading during loading path loading path testify to the fact that small dynamic
Tangent modulus/GPa Poisson ratio hysteresis loop on the big static stress—strain curve
Stress/
Load- unload- reload- Load- Unload- Reload- changes its slope with changing stress. This means that
MPa
ing ing ing ing ing ing wave velocity will increase with increasing stress.
17.1−24.9 28.7 58.8 44.3 0.19 0.18 0.18
47.0−55.1 32.9 57.8 56.2 0.18 0.19 0.21 3.3 Sine wave cyclic loading
79.8−87.3 25.3 58.4 42.9 0.17 0.19 0.19 Sine wave cyclic loading test of dry sandstone was
214 J. Cent. South Univ. Technol. 2007, 14(2)
applied with harmonic forces of dynamic loading of 34.9
MPa, static loading of 36.8 MPa, and 5 Hz of frequency
(Fig.4(a)). The first several hysteresis loops are sparse
and then they become dense rapidly with the increasing
loop numbers and finally tend to stability. Fig.4(b) shows
the tangent modulus and Poisson ratio derived from the
stabilized stress—strain hysteresis loops. They display
asymmetric ‘X’ shape with discontinuous points at the
stress reversal. Fig.4(c) shows the relationship between
the average modulus and cyclic number under loading
and unloading. Average loading and unloading moduli
decrease gradually when
Fig.4 Dynamic response of sandstone under sine wave cyclic
loading
(a) Stress—strain curve; (b) Tangent modulus obtained by
stabilized hysteresis loop; (c) Average loading and unloading
modulus vs cyclic number
the cyclic number increases, and reach the levels of
39.90 GPa and 40.00 GPa, respectively. At the same sine
wave cyclic loading, the average unloading modulus is
larger than the average loading modulus.
Hysteresis loops of the sandstone are not closed
during the first several sine wave cyclic loading
processes, which means the existence of the residual
deformation between the loading and unloading curves.
With increasing of cyclic number, the hysteresis loop
moves towards the direction of strain accretion, but the
changing rate decreases and finally reaches stability. This
is ascribed to the fact that there are large residual strain
and plastic deformation occurring as a large number of
pores and microcracks existing in the rock before loading
continuously close when the rock is subjected to loading.
With increasing number of cyclic loading, the average
loading or unloading modulus decreases, but the
difference between them becomes smaller and smaller
(Fig.4(c)). This shows that the permanent deformation of
a hysteresis loop is less and less with increasing number
of cyclic loading, and finally the hysteresis loop reaches
stability.
Mineral grains of a porous rock interlock to form a
solid frame, and the surfaces of these grains are not
perfectly smooth, for there are several asperity contacts
between two adjacent grains[13]. In the sine wave cyclic
loading tests, once the maximum load is reached and the
load begins to decrease, the stick-slip motion between
the fluid and the surfaces of the asperities and between
the fluid molecules at the grain contact prevents
immediate relaxation of strain until the force becomes
large enough to overcome the frictional force. This is an
explanation for the hysteresis loops in stress vs axial
strain and stress vs lateral strain diagrams, the
discontinuous asymmetric ‘X’ shape of elastic modulus
or Poisson ratio, and the unloading modulus being larger
than loading modulus.
4 Discussion and conclusions
When a sedimentary rock such as sandstone is
subjected to cyclic stress, cracks grow, develop and
coalesce each other, and finally produce faults and
fracture along the disadvantageous direction. During the
stable expansion of cracks, the stress — strain curve
shows nonlinear deformation and characteristics of bulk
expansion localization. This is the sign of macrofracture
in rock, with which the uniaxial compressive strength has
intimate relationship. The simulation study of a saturated
porous material under compression displays that when
the loading rate is increased, the crack growth rate is
decreased[6] . That’s why the increasing loading rate will
raise the strength of rock.
 CHEN Yun-ping, et al: Strength and elastic properties of sandstone under different testing conditions
Uniaxial compressive strength of the sandstone
increases with strain rates. However, variation of their
softening coefficients is not so distinct. Under the
condition of monotonic loading, partial cyclic loading
during loading path and sine wave cyclic loading, the
elastic constants of sandstone exhibit different
characteristics. Under the monotonic loading condition,
tangent modulus and Poisson ratio are not invariable, but
the function of stress—strain level does. The tangent
modulus increases with increasing axial strain (thus
increasing stress) until a certain level, beyond which it
starts to decrease. At the beginning of loading, the rock
undergoes compression and part of microcracks close,
and density of rock becomes larger, so modulus increases.
In the stage of modulus decreasing, the rock material has
induced damage and its integrality lowers. Under the
condition of partial cyclic loading during loading path,
the unloading or reloading modulus is larger than the
loading one, and their difference is more distinct with the
increase of stress level. Moreover, the tangent modulus
derived from loading stage varies with stress level, but
not the tangent modulus derived from unloading or
reloading stage, especially from reloading stage. The
residual deformation between the loading and unloading
curves takes place owing to microplasticity. After the
loading, the microplastic strain is exhausted, therefore
the unloading modulus is higher than the loading
modulus. When the stress exceeds the preceding stress
level then microplastic strain appears again. There is
hysteresis loop in stress—strain constitution under the
sine wave cyclic loading condition. In every stress—
strain hysteresis loop, tangent modulus and Poisson ratio
appear to be asymmetric ‘X’ shape, and average
unloading modulus is larger than average loading
modulus.
The experimental data of strength and elastic
properties of rock are dispersed, which is ascribed to the
lithological variation and distribution of microcracks in
rock samples, and to the possible loading misalignment
during sample preparation and mounting.
The stress—strain relationship is not completely
linear elastic due to heterogeneous material of rock. The
elastic constants (elastic modulus and Poisson ratio)
measured by above three methods are different, so the
measurement approach of elastic constants of rock
should be carefully considered. During the loading
process, loading curve contains both recoverable and
irreversible components, but the elastic constants derived
215
from unloading-reloading curve of a stress level are
stable, especially from the unloading part of the curve.
We suggest the elastic constants derived from unloading
curve.
If the rocks in the earth’s crust are intact, the stress
in the earth’s crust is not beyond the failure strength of
rock. Therefore, investigating the brittle fracture of intact
rock can give the restraints of stress field of the earth’s
crust. Strength, softening coefficient and elastic constants
of sandstone are useful parameters in oil exploitation,
mining engineering and earthquake forecasting, and the
investigation is also significant in basic research of
application geologies (engineering geology, hazardous
geology and environmental geology).
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