The influence of infilling material strength on mechanical properties and failure mechanism of fractured sandstone

To reveal the failure mechanism of fractured sandstone under the influence of the infilling material strength, uniaxial compression tests, and PFC3D numerical simulation analyses were conducted on fractured sandstone with different infilling material strengths, and the influence of the infilling material strength on the basic mechanical properties of the fracture-filled sandstone was studied. The results showed that, with increasing infilling material strength, the peak strength and elastic modulus of the specimens increased nonlinearly and eventually stabilized. The failure pattern of the specimens changed from shear to tensile. When the infilling material strength was low, a wing crack or anti-wing crack was generated; however, when the infilling material strength was high, a vertical tensile crack was generated. From the perspective of fracture mechanics, the filling of sandstone cracks can reduce or even suppress the stress concentration effect at the prefabricated crack tip and improve the bearing capacity of the fractured sandstone. The basic mechanical properties of the fracture-filled sandstone specimens were obtained.PFC3D numerical simulation analyses were conducted on fractured sandstone.The influence mechanism of filling materials on the fractured rock was revealed.