The mechanism of low strain rate and moderate principal stress effects in triaxial prestressed marble under lateral impulsive load

Stress waves have a significant impact on the strength and deformation characteristics of deep rock masses at a certain distance from the epicenter or explosion source. In order to study the dynamic responses of deep-buried marble under the disturbance condition, the true triaxial compression test (TTC), the true triaxial disturbed compression test with lateral impulsive load (TTDC) and the synchronous acoustic emission monitoring on the marble were respectively conducted to simulate the influencing process of the seismic wave. The test results show that under lateral impulsive load, a ‘short-range plateau’ phenomenon occurs in the stress-strain curves of the marble samples. With the increase of intermediate principal stress σ2, the ‘short-range plateau’ of ε2 and ε3 curves gradually shrinks and even disappears, and the anisotropy of sample deformation becomes more obvious. The σ2 significantly affects the microfracture activity and the evolution of energy inside the samples under the impulsive load in the whole process of true triaxial disturbed compression. The lateral impulsive load weakens the marble strength which shows an obvious low strain-rate disturbance effect. The marble samples under the impulsive load have a high sensitivity to axial load and are liable to form local brittle fracture. This fracture induced by local stress concentration and strain energy release becomes more pronounced when the axial load is further applied to the samples. By contrast, the impulsive load in σ2 direction has a protective effect on limiting the lateral deformation of the samples and improving its axial deformation capacity, which greatly changes the action mechanism of σ2 on the sample lateral deformation. The variation of marble mechanical properties under lateral impulsive load is the result of the interaction between the low strain-rate disturbance and the intermediate principal stress effect. •The mechanical and acoustic emission characteristics of deep marble under true triaxial disturbance compression were investigated.•The influence of the intermediate principal stress on the mechanical behavior and failure mode of the marble was explored.•The relationship between the low strain rate disturbance load and intermediate principal stress were disclosed.