Investigation on mechanical behaviors and energy characteristics of deep-buried marble in a hydraulic tunnel in Southwest China

Shear behavior of rock is of great significance to the stability of deep-buried rock in transportation geotechnical engineering. A series of direct shear tests are carried out on deep-buried marble with different size and shape to focused on the mechanical properties and size shape effects of deeply buried marble, which have been less studied previously. The results show that the size and shape of the specimen have a relatively small impact on the trend of shear stress-shear displacement curve. The failure morphology at the front and rear surfaces shows a significant normal stress effect. Some properties of specimens with different sizes and shapes increase with increasing normal stress, but the dilation angle generally decreases with the increasing normal stress. With the increase of the shear plane size of intact specimen, the cohesion decreases gradually while the internal friction angle increases steadily. The difference value in peak strain between axial compression and direct shear tests is relatively small while it is huge for the peak compression and peak shear strength. The results in this study are beneficial for further understanding the shear mechanics, energy evolution process and size effects of deep-buried rock in transportation geotechnical engineering.