Uniaxial Compressive Strength of Rock under Non-atmospheric Environments

In order to investigate the influence of surrounding environment on strength of rock, the uniaxial compression test under non-atmospheric environments was conducted on Kumamoto andesite. The environments used in this study are water vapor, organic vapor environments as methanol, ethanol and acetone and inorganic gas environments as oxygen, nitrogen and argon. From the experimental results, it is clarified that water is the most effective agent which promotes stress corrosion of rock. Furthermore, the strength of rock increases with decreasing water vapor pressure. From the relation between uniaxial compressive strength and water vapor pressure, the stress corrosion index of Kumamoto andesite is estimated 24.