Geomechanical and water vapor absorption characteristics of clay-bearing soft rocks at great depth

The geological and physico-mechanical properties characterization of deep soft rocks is one of the critical scientific issues for deep soft rock engineering. In the present study, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and mercury intrusion porosimetry experiments were carried out to investigate the mineral compositions, microstructure and porosity characteristics of the 13 clay-bearing soft rock samples collected from a deep coal mine in China. Water vapor absorption and uniaxial compressive experiments were also performed to examine water absorption characteristics and water-induced strength degradation effect of the investigated deep soft rock samples. The results show that the dominant mineral components in mudstone, coarse sandstone and fine sandstone samples were calcite, quartz and clay respectively. The contents of clay minerals in all samples were relatively high and ranged from 12.3% (N-4) to 56.5% (XS-1). Water vapor absorption processes of all the soft rock samples follow an exponential law which is very similar to the water vapor absorption behavior of conglomerate samples reported in our earlier study. Correlation analyses also suggested that there were good positive correlation relationships between water absorptivity and clay minerals for both mudstone and sandstone samples. Furthermore, it was found that vapor absorption was not correlated with the porosity for mudstone, however, positive correlation relationship was found between them for sandstone. Correlation analysis between UCS, modulus of elasticity and water content demonstrated that both of them tend to decrease with the increase of their water content due to water absorption.