Rheological behavior and modeling of a crushed sandstone-mudstone particle mixture

Abstract

A mixture of sandstone and mudstone particles is often used as the main filling material for many agriculture-related and civil engineering projects, including rock-fill dams and foundations. The long-term rheological deformation experienced by rock-fill dams and foundations filled with this mixture is much bigger than that of coarse-grained and cohesive soils, due to the deterioration and softening of the mudstone particles. This study focuses on the rheological deformation of a sandstone-mudstone particle mixture, prepared by mixing sandstone and mudstone particles, based on the content by weight of four mudstone particle types. Confined uniaxial compression tests were performed to test the rheological deformation of 24 samples of the mixture, and a stress-strain curve was obtained for each test. On the basis of compression curves, the rheological process of the mixture was divided into four phases: linear, attenuation rheological, secondary attenuation rheological and stable phases. The three defining features of the curve, namely the rheological attenuation factors, attenuation rheology critical strain and limited rheological strain, were then determined and modeled. A segmented rheological model was then proposed, based on a modified attenuation rheological constitutive model for coarse-grained soil. The modelled results compared well with the experimental data, and the modelled compression-curve prediction was able to describe the two-stage attenuation rheology features (attenuation rheological and secondary attenuation rheological phases) of the sandstone-mudstone particle mixture.