Paper 1B 14 SINOROCK2004 Symposium Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Vol. 41, No. 3, CD-ROM, 2004 Elsevier Ltd.

THE EFFECT OF GROUNDWATER RECHARGE ON BROKEN ROCKS Z. Li, D.J. Reddish Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics, School of Civil Engineering, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK e-mail: enxzl2@nottingham.ac.uk

Abstract: The systematic and rapid closure of coal mines throughout Europe will result in a gradual recovery of the coalfield water table once the mine pumps are switched off. It is anticipated that, as well as the environmental implications in terms of surface water pollution as rising groundwater intersects the ground surface, there will be a geomechanical response in the rock mass which may in turn have implications for the surface environment in the form of residual or renewed subsidence. This paper presents the preliminary results from laboratory based tests carried out on UK coal strata, aimed at quantifying the effects of water on rock properties, particularly on broken rocks, which are common in the subsidence overburden post mining. This approach specifically refers to the UCS, UTS and the relationship between time and water content of intact and broken rocks. Comparisons are made between these two rock conditions. It is anticipated that this will lead to a better understanding of the influence of fluctuating groundwater level on rock mass behaviour, and will aid in developing computer models to accurately simulate this behaviour. Keywords: Groundwater, Recharge, Effect, Broken rocks, Mechanical properties, Moisture content.

1. INTRODUCTION
Due to the porous nature of rocks moisture will inevitably come into rocks. The influence of water is quite important for the inherent safety and stability of underground structures or projects. For most soils and rocks, moisture presents a whole new range of problems. Among the many factors influencing rock strength, moisture is one of the most important (Rao, K.S. et al., 1987). Water is the enemy in most engineering problems (Michael, D.J., 1982). Apart from that, mine water continues to be a major concern to both operating and abandoned mines (Reddish, D.J., 1994). In a word, there has been no doubt that moisture can affect the mechanical properties of various rock types, particularly sedimentary rocks (Aughenbaugh, N.B. & Bruzewski, R.F., 1973; Parate, N.S., 1973; Van Eeckhout, E.M., 1976). Accordingly, a good understanding of this kind of effect is vital for projects during their design and construction. On the other hand, with mining depth increasing and coal resource being exhausted, a great number of collieries have closed down throughout the U.K. as well as areas in Germany, France and Poland. The abstraction of mine water is often stopped following this closure. As a result of this, the

groundwater will rebound and the abandoned mines will be progressively inundated. The country rocks ambient roadways and working faces will be soaked in water. It is well known that the effect of moisture is usually a lowering of strength with increased moisture, as well as an increase in mechanical compliances in certain rocks. Therefore, the rebounding groundwater will definitely lead to a deterioration of engineering properties of rocks. The safety and stability of these abandoned mines will be under risk. Although this deteriorative effect has been documented, most of analyses are qualitative rather than quantitative and they are for intact rocks only. Broken rocks which are quite common in the subsiding strata post mining are not included. The influence of moisture on broken rocks has not been investigated clearly. As well as this, previous results on intact rocks are composed of discrete experimental data. It is almost impossible to apply these results to accurately analyse the behaviour of rock directly. In view of the above, the pressing task is to investigate this effect of water clearly especially on broken rocks post mining. With this research results related simulation and prediction can be made so that any hazard created by water can be assessed.

Paper 1B 14 SINOROCK2004 Symposium Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Vol. 41, No. 3, CD-ROM, 2004 Elsevier Ltd.

In this paper, the effect of water on intact and broken rocks is investigated and compared. The relationship between water content and time is obtained. The variation of internal friction angle and cohesive strength is analysed with the effect of water and breaking considered. A significant difference is observed between intact and broken rocks.

2. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH 2.1 Specimen preparation

The specimens are prepared in accordance with the ISRM suggested specifications. All of them are drilled out in the same orientation from the same rock block. This approach allows a high level of replication to be obtained and the same mechanical and physical properties to be shared among all the samples, with a dry density of 2286 kg/m3 , and a porosity of 12%. The shape of the specimen is a cylinder of 38.0 mm in diameter and 76.0 mm in height. The two ends should be parallel and accurately ground with the end surfaces perpendicular to the longitudinal axis within 0.05 mm in 50 mm. The broken specimens are produced by uniaxially compressing intact samples, Fig.1.

Figure 1.Broken samples from intact specimens through uniaxial compression Samples have been placed into airtight plastic bags for protection and stored in a room with constant relative humidity and constant temperature between preparation and being tested.

2.2 Experimental techique

All of the tests are carried out on sandstone at room temperature with varying moisture content.

In order to obtain the degree of saturation of specimens, periodical weighting is employed. The specimens tested are dried first in a ventilated oven at 1053 until a constant mass is reached (at least 24 hours required) and then allowed to cool in a desiccator for approximately 30 minutes. Constant mass is detected when successive mass determinations at intervals of 4 hours yield values differing by less than 0.1%. This procedure is considered to be quite effective to introduce water into the pores and cracks of specimens (Masuda, K., 2001) After the mass and size are measured both broken and intact specimens can be saturated in a vacuum by immersing them in water. Periodical agitation can be employed to remove any air bubble trapped in specimens. The specimens should be weighed periodically to get the relationship between time and water content when being saturated. When the variation of successive masses every 4 hours is less than 0.1% of the sample mass the specimens can be considered saturated fully. Care should be taken to prevent any loss of loose particles while the specimens are surface dried by means of a moist cloth before being weighed. Although the time normally required to wait for being tested does not significantly influence the moisture content, specimens are best protected with self-sticking polyethylene. After fully saturated, the broken and intact specimens are left in a well ventilated room with constant room temperature and weighed every hour. Through this method, the relationship between time and moisture content can be determined. Comparisons are made based on these experimental data. Triaxial and uniaxial tests are conducted to test the effect of water on the strength of broken and intact rocks. It is known that the stress or strain rate has a significant effect on the behaviour of rocks: either uniaxial or triaxial compressive strength increases with stress or strain rate increasing (Dhir, R.K., 1973). In view of the above and in order to compare the effect of water accurately between broken and intact rocks, specimens are tested at constant rate of 0.00625 mm/sec. During the test, axial strain/displacement and the load can be recorded. Since the uniaxial results cannot illustrate the difference clearly between water saturated and dry strength (Hadizadeh, J. & Law, R.D., 1991), triaxial tests are conducted to fulfil this task.

Paper 1B 14 SINOROCK2004 Symposium Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Vol. 41, No. 3, CD-ROM, 2004 Elsevier Ltd.

Water content (%)

Uniaxial compressive tests are carried out only on intact specimens. The testing procedure is detailed below. Firstly, an intact specimen with certain water content is compressed to failure. Thus, the broken specimen is produced and ready to be tested. Apply or increase the confining pressure to a certain value and reload it. When it reaches the peak value increase the confining pressure till the next peak point. This procedure can be repeated. Through this way, the strength of the broken specimen with the same moisture content can be gained under different confining pressures. Therefore, the strength envelopes can be fitted and properties can be compared between intact and broken rocks. All the specimens tested are jacketed and mounted in the triaxial testing cell with extensometer. Loads are applied with constant strain rate. The application of confining pressure should be simultaneous with the increase of axial load to prevent failure because of the lateral pressure only. So is the ramp down of axial load with the reduction of confining pressure when the specimen is failed. During testing the mass of water penetrating into specimens remains constant. Although the degree of saturation decreases in the process of loading, especially after the dilatancy occurs (Masuda, K., 2001), it is not enough to result in evident influence on the mechanical properties. This effect can be neglected. In a word, the mechanical parameters obtained from tests here are for stable moisture content.

Fig. 2 demonstrates there is definite difference between intact rocks and broken rocks when they are being saturated in a vacuum. The broken rocks can reach full saturation state earlier than the intact rocks although it is not quite clear herein since the water content ascends dramatically within the first 10 minutes because of the vacuum employed. Specimens can be almost saturated fully in 30 minutes, 96.9% and 98.0% for intact and broken rocks respectively under these testing conditions. As well as this, the water content in broken rocks, 5.43%, is higher, approximately 11.4%, than in intact rocks, 4.81% when specimens are fully saturated. However, the authors believe that the water content rising is not constant for all types of rocks. All of these phenomena can attribute to the existence of cracks due to failure. Water can penetrate into specimens through these cracks. And some of them can remain and adhere to the crack surfaces. The former can explain broken rocks being saturated fully earlier, whilst the later should be the reason why more water are trapped in broken rocks.
6

Intact Rocks x y=4.81(1-0.7 ) Broken Rocks x y=5.43(1-0.6 )

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Relationship between time and degree of saturation
Experimental data were obtained from which mathematical expressions were regressed. The relationship can be obtained at two stages, one being saturated and the other air dried. Accordingly, two kinds of testing results are analysed. Fig. 2 demonstrates the difference between intact rocks and broken rocks when they are saturated in a vacuum, around 30 Hg. Whilst, Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 illustrate the changing tendency of water content and the degree of saturation within 24 hours while specimens are being air dried from fully saturated state in a well ventilated room.

10

20

30

40

50

60

Time (minutes)

Figure 2.Comparison of water content/time curves for intact rocks and broken rocks being saturated in a vacuum Saturated broken rocks can retain more water than intact ones, Fig. 3. This condition remains invariable during the whole process of being air dried. Furthermore, when water content for intact and broken rocks is stable the difference between them keeps almost constant, around 10% although it is approximately 16% at the beginning. The above phenomena, the authors reckon, are caused by the free surface energy. Surface energyabsorbing layers occur when water contacts these surfaces. The water captured by corresponding free

Paper 1B 14 SINOROCK2004 Symposium Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Vol. 41, No. 3, CD-ROM, 2004 Elsevier Ltd.

surface energy is not released totally when specimens are air dried. Only a part of it can break through and escape into air. Exponential functions can be employed to represent the two curves as follow. For intact rocks:

y = 0.73 + 3.99e
For broken rocks:

x 4. 14

almost identical. In other words, cracks in broken rocks have no significant influence on the degree of saturation under this condition. Crack can increase the water content through trapping water on surfaces with free surface energy. But for the degree of saturation, it is not relevant. These two curves can also be described with exponential function approximation as follow. For intact rocks:

y = 0.80 + 4.48e

x 4 . 68

Y = 15.40 + 82.48e
For broken rocks:

x 4 .88

Where, y is water content and x is time.

Where, Y is the degree of saturation and x is time.

5

Y = 15.41 + 84.78e

x 4. 62

Intact Rocks Broken Rocks

3.2 Effects of water on compressive strength

Uniaxial and Triaxial compressive tests are conducted to investigate the deteriorative effect of water on intact and broken rocks. Fig. 5 shows the strength envelopes of intact and broken rocks when they are oven dried and fully saturated. From practical considerion the strength envelopes are fitted as a straight line with the confining pressure as abscissa and strength as ordinates just as demonstrated in Fig. 5. On the basis of this, the corresponding cohesive strength and internal friction angle can be worked out with suggested methods from ISRM to investigate their variation due to the effect of water. It can be seen from the experimental results, Fig. 5, that the two envelopes of intact rocks are parallel with each other although one is oven dried whilst the other is fully saturated. So are the two failure envelopes of the broken rocks. However, the evlopes of the intact rocks are not parallel with the ones of broken rocks. This manifests the internal friction angle will not reduce with the water content as long as specimens do not break. Under either state, intact or broken, the internal friction angle stays constant no matter if oven dried or fully saturated. It remains constant at 47.8 for intact rocks and 38.3 for broken rocks. Around 20% is lost due to the specimen breaking. Conclusions can be drawn from the above. Water has nearly no influence on the internal friction angle but the state under which rocks are intact or broken does. However, cohesive strength is deteriorated by both water and the state of the rocks causing the strength of fully saturated specimens to be lower than the oven dried samples although they are under the same state. Strength of broken rocks is always

Water content (%)

0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Figure 3.Comparison of water content/time curves for intact rocks and broken rocks being air dried
100

Time (hours)

Intact Rocks Broken Rocks

Degree of saturation (%)

80

60

40

20

0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Figure 4.Comparison of degree of saturation/time curves for intact rocks and broken rocks being air dried Nearly nothing, on the other hand, can be distinguished from intact and broken rocks when they are air dried within 24 hours, Fig. 4. The two curves for intact and broken rocks respectively are

Time (hours)

Paper 1B 14 SINOROCK2004 Symposium Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Vol. 41, No. 3, CD-ROM, 2004 Elsevier Ltd.

lower than the strength of intact ones no matter when they are oven dried or fully saturated.
160

140

Intact Rocks Broken Rocks Oven dried Fully saturated

120

100

80

60

Water has more deteriorative effect on broken rocks than on intact ones. The cohesive strength of intact rocks declines 35.80% whilst, for broken rocks, it is 73.45% when fully saturated. Similar conclusions can be reached for the broken state. For oven dried specimens the cohesive strength drops down 48.15% when they are broken and, 78.56% for the fully saturated samples. It can be concluded that only the broken state can modify the internal friction angle. But cohesive strength is affected by both the water content and the broken state.

Axial strength (MPa)

40

10

12

14

16

Confining Pressure (MPa)

4. CONCLUSIONS
The experimental results and analytic solutions presented in this paper show that more water can penetrate into broken rocks within shorter time. The strength of rocks can be deteriorated due to water or breaking. Further more, water can make already broken rocks fail more easily. Also, proportionately more strength will be lost due to breaking when rocks are saturated. The state, intact or broken, appears to predominantly control the friction angle. The degree of saturation controls the cohesion. Further work is being undertaken on testing the strength of rocks at various moisture contents

Figure 5.Strength envelopes of intact and broken rocks oven dried and fully saturated. Table 1. Strength of intact rocks with different confining pressure, unit: MPa Samples Oven dried Fully saturated 0 MPa 96.7 58.7 5 MPa 127.7 98.8 10 MPa 162.9 126.9 Table 2. Strength of broken rocks with different confining pressure, unit: MPa Samples Oven dried Fully saturated 5 MPa 58.8 32.3 7 MPa 68.0 41.4 9 MPa 77.3 49.5 11 MPa 85.6 58.6 13 MPa 93.8 67.7 15 MPa 100.0 75.8 Table 3. Cohesive strength and internal friction angle of different samples Reduction of Samples ( ) C (MPa)

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to express special thanks to Miss Jing Liu for her generous help and good intension and many thanks to Dr Dave Whittles, Dr Del Booth and Mr Mark Dale, School of Civil Engineering, University of Nottingham, for their directions during the test and helpful discussion concerning this work.

6. REFERENCES

IO 48.1 18.38 IS 47.5 11.80 BO 37.8 9.53 BS 38.8 2.53 Note: IO: Intact Oven dried IS: Intact fully Saturated BO: Broken Oven dried BS: Broken Saturated

38.80% 73.45%

Ager, M.W. 1995. The development of methods to measure flow form abandoned mine workings. Report, Dept. Civil Engineering. University of Newcastle Upon Tyne Aughenbaugh, N.B. & Bruzewski, R.F. 1973. Investigation of the failure of roofs in coal mines. Final report on Bureau of Mines Contract HO111462

Aughenbaugh, N.B. 1974. Effect of moisture on shale, Proc.23rd Annual Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Conference,

Paper 1B 14 SINOROCK2004 Symposium Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Vol. 41, No. 3, CD-ROM, 2004 Elsevier Ltd.

Recent Development in Engineering, Kansas City

Geotechnical

Ballivy, G., Ladanyi, B., & Gill, D.E. 1976. Effect of water saturation history on the strength of low-porosity rocks. Soil specimen preparation for laboratory testing. ASTM, American Society for Testing and Materials. 599: pp.4-20 Bell, F.G. 1981. A survey of the physical properties of some Carboneate rocks. Bull. of the Int. Assoc. Eng. Geol. 24: pp.105-110 Berg, C.R. 1995. A simple, effective- medium model for water saturation in porous rocks. Geophysics 60(4): pp.1070-1080 Boozer, G.D., Hiller, K.H. & Serdengecti, S. 1962. Effect of pore fluids on the deformation behaviour of rocks subjected to triaxial compression. Proc. Of the 5th Symp. On Rock Mech., Pergamon, pp.579-625 Brassington, F.C. 1990. Rising groundwater levels in the UK. Proc. of Instn. of Civ. Engrs.88: pp.1037-1057 Broch, E. 1974. The influence of water on some rock properties. Proc. 3rd ISRM Congr., Denver, Vol. 2A: pp.33-38 Broch, E. 1979. Changes in rock strength by water. Proc. IV. Int. Soc. Rock Mech, Montreux, Vol.1, pp.71-75 Chamberlain, P.G., Van Eeckhout, E.M., & Podnieks, E.R., 1976. Four factors influencing observed rock properties. Soil specimen preparation for laboratory testing, ASTM, American Society for testing and Materials. 599:pp.21-36 Chenevert, M.E., 1970. Shale alteration by water adsorption. J. Petroleum Technology, pp.11411148 Dube, A.K. & Singh, B. 1972. Effect of humidity on tensile strength of sandstone. J. Mines, metals and fuels 20(1): pp.8-10 Hadizadeh, J. & Law, R.D. 1991. Waterweakening of sandstone and quartzite deformed at various stress and strain rates. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. & Geomech. Abstr. 28(5): pp.431-439 Hawkins, A.B. & McConnel, B.J. 1992. Sensitivity of sandstone strength and deformability to changes in moisture content. J. Eng. Geology 25: pp.115-130 Hunt, D.J. 1998. The stability implication of groundwater recharge upon shallow abandoned coal mines in The U.K. PhD thesis, The University of Nottingham. Karfakis, M.G. & Akram, M. 1993. Effects of chemical solutions on rock fracturing. Int. J.

Rock Mech. Min. Sci. & Geomech. Abstr. 30(7): pp.1253-1259 Kirby, S.H. 1984. Introduction and digest to the special issue on chemical effects of water on the deformation and strength of rocks. J. Geophysical Research 89(B6): pp.3991-3995 Masuda, K. 2001. Effects of water on rock strength in a brittle regime. J. Structural Geology 23(11): pp.1653-1657 Morrow, C.A., Moore, D.E. & Lockner, D.A. 2000. The effect of mineral bond strength and adsorbed water on fault gouge frictional strength. Geophysical research letters 27(6): pp.815-818 Parate, N.S. 1973. Influence of water on the strength of limestone. Transaction of Society of mining engineers, AIME. 254: pp.127-131 Rao, K.S., Venkatappa Rao, G. & Ramamurthy, T. 1987. Strength of sandstone in saturated and partly saturated conditions. Geotechnical Engineering 18: pp.99-126 Robb, G.A. 1994. Environmental consequence of coal mine closure. Geographical Journal 160: pp.33-40 Sato, M. & Kamemura, K. 1985. Roch mass behaviour considering water flow. In Proc. 5th Int. Conference on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics, Nagoya, 1-5 April, 1985 Sridharan, A. & Venkatappa Rao, G. 1973. Mechanism controlling volume change of saturated clays and the role of effective stress concept. Geotechnique 23: pp.359-382 Sridharan, A. & Venkatappa Rao, G. 1979. Shear strength behaviour of saturated clays and the role of effective stress concept. Geotechnique 29: pp.177-193 Stracey, T.R. & Page, C.H. 1986. Practical handbook for underground rock mechanics. Trans. Tech. Publication, South Africa Swift, G.M. 2000. An examination of stability issues relating to abandoned, underground mine workings. PhD thesis, The University of Nottingham. Smith, J.A. & Colls, J.J. 1996. Groundwater rebound in the Leicestershire Coalfield. J. CIWEM 10: pp.281-289 Toshiro S., Shigenori K. & Yosi, I. 1981. A study on water sensitivity of argillaceous rock. In Proc. of the Int. Sym. on weak rock , Tokyo pp.21-24 Van Eeckhout E.M., 1976. The mechanism of strength reduction due to moisture in coal mine shales. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. and Geomech. Abstr. 13(2): pp.61-67