Development and Application of a New Triaxial Testing System for Subzero Rocks

To face the challenges of coal production today, the mechanical behaviors of rock in subzero and disturbed environments are critical in the geomechanics of coal mining and artificial freezing engineering. Disturbances significantly affect the long-term mechanical properties and nonlinear viscoelastic-plastic deformation characteristics of frozen soft rock. This article summarizes current rock triaxial test systems, which cannot concurrently solve the problems of subzero temperatures, creep, disturbance, and high sampling rates. Based on existing equipment limitations and the current research aims, an innovative, applicable, and scalable measurement/control system based on National Instruments hardware is integrated into LabVIEW to design and construct a new triaxial testing system capable of achieving both dynamic disturbances and subzero temperatures. The testing system can produce a basic environment with confining pressures up to 30 MPa, axial forces up to 500 kN, and lowest temperatures of -30 degrees C. The system has a 51.2 kS/s sampling using 5-channel closed-loop control. By changing the transfer valve between the supercharger and the servo valve, both conventional triaxial compression and creep tests can be carried out. The triaxial creep tests are performed on frozen rock specimens under step loading and graded disturbances to analyze the creep deformation characteristics and failure modes of the specimens. The results show that at low stress levels, the disturbance load closes and reorganizes microcracks in the rock specimens, reducing the specimen deformation rate. With increasing stress levels or disturbance intensities, the specimen cracks expand rapidly, the creep rate increases, the disturbance energy stored in the rock specimen releases, and the specimens rapidly fail. Therefore, this disturbance creep phenomenon must be considered, and timely support should be provided for exposed frozen rock wall to guarantee construction safety. Moreover, the test results also verify that the design of the new testing system is reliable, feasible, and useful.