Experimental investigation of the effect of temperature on the mechanical behavior of Tournemire shale

• Investigation of temperature effects on the mechanical behavior of a clayey rock.
• Both deformation and failure behaviors strongly affected by temperature variation.
• Previous studies on this anisotropic rock completed by the new results of the present work.

This paper is devoted to the experimental investigation of the effect of temperature on the mechanical behavior of a typical anisotropic clayey rock, the Tournemire shale. Hydrostatic and conventional triaxial compression tests are first performed under room temperature for two principal loading orientations, respectively parallel and perpendicular to the bedding planes. The obtained results confirm an anisotropic mechanical behavior observed by the previous works. Further, hydrostatic and triaxial compression tests with different confining pressures are carried out under different temperatures up to 250 °C. With the increase of temperature, there is a significant decrease of Young׳s modulus and the compression failure strength but an increase of the overall deformability of material. The temperature change also affects the anisotropic response related to the deformation of bedding planes.