Failure mode and weakening effect of water on sandstone

Previous studies have shown that brittle strength of a rock is generally reduced in the presence of water. However, for siliciclastic rocks, there is a paucity of data on the waterweakening behavior in the cataclastic flow regime. To compare the weakening effect of water in the brittle faulting and cataclastic flow regime, triaxial compression experiments were conducted on the Berea, Boise, Darley Dale, and Gosford sandstones (with nominal porosities ranging from 11% to 35%) under nominally dry and saturated conditions at room temperature. Inelastic behavior and failure mode of the nominal dry samples were qualitatively similar to those of water‐saturated samples. At elevated pressures, shear localization was inhibited, and all the samples failed by strain hardening. The compactive yield strengths (associated with the onset of shear‐enhanced compaction) in the saturated samples were lower than those in the dry samples deformed under comparable pressure conditions by 20% to 70%. The reductions of brittle strength in the presence of water ranged from 5% to 17%. The water‐weakening effects were most and least significant in the Gosford and Berea sandstones, respectively. The relation between water weakening and failure mode is consistently explained by micromechanical models formulated on the basis that the specific surface energy in the presence of water is lowered than that in vacuum by the ratio λ. In accordance with the Hertzian fracture model the initial yield stress in the compactive cataclastic flow regime scales with the grain‐crushing pressure, which is proportional to λ 3/2 . In the brittle faulting regime, damage mechanics models predict that the uniaxial compressive strength scales with λ 1/2 . In the presence of water the confined brittle strength is lower due to reductions of both the specific surface energy and friction coefficient.