Influence of area-to-volume ratios on dissolution characteristics and mechanical properties of acid-corroded sandstone

To study the effect of area-to-volume ratio on the dissolution and deterioration characteristics of sandstone in the static acid-rock reaction system, the HCl and H2SO4 solutions with pH=2 and 5 are selected as corrosion environments, and the different area-to-volume ratios are set by changing surface areas of sandstone. The effects of area-to-volume ratios on the physicochemical and mechanical properties of sandstone are studied. According to the acid-rock reaction theory, the effect of the area-to-volume ratio on the diffusion-dissolution mechanism during sandstone corrosion is analyzed. The results show that the sandstone mass loss rate and amount of substance of total cations are all related to the corrosion time as a power function. The area-to-volume is positively correlated with the dissolution rate constant and has little effect on the reaction order. The reaction order is less than one in different environments, indicating that the sandstone corrosion rate decreases gradually with soaking time. In the pH=2、5 HCl solution and pH=2 H2SO4 solution, the amount of substance of cation shows N(Ca2+) > N(Na+) > N(Mg2+) > N(K+), and in the pH=5 H2SO4 solution, it is N(Na+) > N(Ca2+) > N(Mg2+) ≈ N(K+). The acid-rock reaction can be summarized as two mechanisms: diffusion control and chemical reaction control. The two control parameters are negatively correlated with the area-to-volume ratio and positively with the pH value of solutions. The parameter values in the H2SO4 solutions are slightly larger than the corresponding values in the HCl solutions. The interaction between sandstone and acid in different conditions is dominated by the chemical reaction. The area-to-volume ratio significantly influences diffusion more than the chemical reaction. The mechanical properties of sandstone are weakened after acid corrosion. The damage of sandstone under uniaxial compression can be divided into four stages: compaction, elastic deformation, plastic yielding and post-peak. The peak strength and elastic modulus decrease, the peak strain increases, the brittleness declines, and the ductility is enhanced. The larger the area-to-volume ratio, the more severe the sandstone deterioration is. Overall, the smaller the pH value of solutions, the more prominent the effects of the area-to-volume ratio on the dissolution characteristics and mechanical properties of sandstone are, which is more obvious in the HCl solutions than in the H2SO4 solutions. The finding can provide theoretical references for the safety assessment and disaster prevention of rock mass engineering under an acidic environment. © 2023 China Coal Society. All rights reserved.