Experimental study of Kaiser effect under cyclic compression and tension tests

Reliable estimation of compressive as well as tensile in-situ stresses is critical in the design and analysis of underground structures and openings in rocks. Kaiser effect technique, which uses acoustic emission from rock specimens under cyclic load, is well established for the estimation of in-situ compressive stresses. This paper investigates the Kaiser effect on marble specimens under cyclic uniaxial compressive as well as cyclic uniaxial tensile conditions. The tensile behavior was studied by means of Brazilian tests. Each specimen was tested by applying the load in four loading cycles having magnitudes of 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of the peak stress. The experimental results confirm the presence of Kaiser effect in marble specimens under both compressive and tensile loading conditions. Kaiser effect was found to be more dominant in the first two loading cycles and started disappearing as the applied stress approached the peak stress, where felicity effect became dominant instead. This behavior was observed to be consistent under both compressive and tensile loading conditions and can be applied for the estimation of in-situ rock stresses as a function of peak rock stress. At a micromechanical level, Kaiser effect is evident when the pre-existing stress is smaller than the crack damage stress and ambiguous when pre-existing stress exceeds the crack damage stress. Upon reaching the crack damage stress, the cracks begin to propagate and coalesce in an unstable manner. Hence acoustic emission observations through Kaiser effect analysis can help to estimate the crack damage stresses reliably thereby improving the efficiency of design parameters.