Summary
The long-term response to sustained compressive loading of two crystalline hard rocks of the Canadian Shield has been investigated. Static fatigue tests conducted on granite and anorthosite have shown that in a humid environment the long-term strengths of these crystalline igneous rocks could be less than 60 percent of their dry instantaneous strengths. Such reduction in strength has implications for the design and construction of deep tunnels, mines and other underground installations. The particular case of a nuclear fuel waste vault located at a depth of one kilometer is considered.
Considering a service life of 1,000 years, a vault one kilometer deep in granite could suffer time-dependent spalling in highly stressed regions of the rock where the maximum principal stress exceeds about 130 MPa. Anorthosite has a lower instantaneous strength than granite and it is sensitive to static fatigue as well. A vault in anorthosite would be subject to time-dependent spalling of the perimeter rock in places where the maximum principal stress is above 80 MPa.
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Lajtai, E.Z., Schmidtke, R.H. Delayed failure in rock loaded in uniaxial compression. Rock Mech Rock Engng 19, 11–25 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01043444
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01043444