Mechanisms of Anisotropy in Salt Rock Upon Microcrack Propagation

Salt rock is a polycrystalline material of interest for geostorage because of its low permeability and potential to self-heal by pressure solution at favorable stress and temperature conditions. It is often assumed that microcrack propagation and healing lead to isotropic stiffness changes. The goal of this study is to check this assumption and to gain a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that control the accumulation of damage and irreversible deformation. Cyclic axial loading tests are performed under a confining pressure of 1 MPa on synthetic salt rock generated by thermal consolidation. The stress–strain curves and the microstructure images taken at key stages of the cycles reveal the formation of a complex system of sliding and wing microcracks, the orientation of which is loading dependent. We interpret the mechanisms that control the coupled evolution of crack families by a discrete wing crack elastoplastic damage (DWCPD) model. Crack propagation is controlled by Mode I and Mode II fracture mechanics criteria. Sliding “main” cracks grow if a cohesive frictional criterion is met, while the wing cracks propagate in tension. Displacement jumps at crack faces are related to the deformation of the rock representative elementary volume (REV). The DWCPD model can capture the nonlinear stress–strain relationship and the degradation of stiffness during the loading cycles. Simulations show that microcracks occur following two stages: (1) wing cracks initiate and main cracks do not propagate; (2) wing cracks and main cracks then propagate simultaneously. Higher friction at the crack faces leads to higher strength. With a larger cohesion, salt rock strength increases, damage development is delayed and exhibits a stick-slip evolution. At higher confinement, the initiation of wing cracks is delayed, which results in an increase of strength. The damage rate is higher in specimens that are damaged prior to compression than in the ones that are not. The proposed DWCPD model can be extended to any polycrystalline semi-brittle material, and can be applied to understand the formation of crack patterns in geostorage facilities.