Fracturing and Damage to Sandstone Under Coupling Effects of Chemical Corrosion and Freeze–Thaw Cycles

Rapid freeze–thaw (FT) cycles were adopted to explore the damage deterioration mechanism and mechanical properties of sandstone specimens under the coupling effects of different chemical solutions and FT cycles. The variation regularities of the FT cycles and physical and mechanical properties of sandstone specimens immersed in different chemical solutions were analyzed by using sandstone sampled from a Chinese riverbank slope. The damage variable based on porosity variation was used in the quantitative analysis of the damage to the sandstone under the coupling effects of chemical corrosion and FT cycles. Experimental results showed that the sandstone specimens weakened substantially under those effects. Their fracture toughness K _IC, splitting tensile strength, and compressive strength showed a similar deteriorating trend with various numbers of FT cycles. However, a difference exists in the deterioration degree of their mechanical parameters, i.e., the deterioration degree of their fracture toughness K _IC is the greatest followed by that of splitting tensile strength, and that of compressive strength is relatively small. Strong acid solutions may aggravate the deterioration of FT damage in sandstones, but at the early stage of the experiment, strong alkaline solutions inhibited sandstone damage deterioration. However, the inhibiting effect disappeared when the number of FT cycles exceeded 25. The different chemical solutions had a different effect on the FT damage degree of the sandstone specimens; for example, SO₄ ²⁻ ions had a greater effect on FT damage than did HCO₃ ⁻ ions. Water–chemical solutions and FT cycles promote each other in deteriorating rocks and simultaneously affect the damage deterioration degree of sandstones.