Research on anisotropic permeability and porosity of columnar jointed rock masses during cyclic loading and unloading based on physical model experiments

In this paper, the permeability and porosity of self-prepared artificial columnar jointed rock masses (CJRM) with different columnar dip angles under different pore pressures during cyclic loading-unloading of confining pressure were measured. The experimental results indicate that the gas permeability of the artificial CJRM gradually decreases with the rise of pore pressure due to the existence of Klinkenberg effect, and Klinkenberg effect gradually decreases with the rise of columnar dip angle. The existence of it improves significantly the intrinsic permeability. Besides, the intrinsic permeability and porosity of artificial CJRM are more sensitive to the first loading than that of the intact cement mortar specimen. The permanent deformation of pores in the specimens mainly appears in the first cycle, and the subsequent cycles have smaller effects on the intrinsic permeability and porosity. The permanent deformation results in the intrinsic permeability, and porosity in the loading process is always higher than those in the unloading process. The intrinsic permeability gradually increases with the growth of columnar dip angle, exhibiting obvious permeability anisotropy. Under high confining pressure, the permeability anisotropy of artificial CJRM is less than that under low confining pressure. Meanwhile, under the same confining pressure, during the repeated loading-unloading cycles, the permeability anisotropy decreases gradually. The existence of a representative element volume (REV) for CJRM is verified; thus, the equivalent continuum media model can be utilized to analyse the seepage characteristics of CJRM.