Waveform features and failure patterns of hollow cylindrical sandstone specimens under repetitive impact and triaxial confinements

In underground engineering practice, the surrounding rocks are subjected to a nonuniform stress field with various radial gradients. In this study, a series of conventional triaxial repetitive impact tests using hollow cylindrical sandstone (HOS) specimens were conducted to reveal the impact waveform features and failure properties of rocks under nonuniform stress conditions. The tests were conducted using a modified large diameter split Hopkinson pressure bar testing system. The confining pressure was set as 5, 10 and 12 MPa. The data of specimens under equilibrium stress states were chosen and analyzed, and the results showed that more applied numbers of cyclic impact loads were needed to break rocks with the increase of confining pressure. Three types of cracks, i.e., ring-shaped cracks around the hole in the center of specimens, axial cracks located in the outer cylindrical surface, and lateral cracks fracturing rock fragments into small pieces appeared in HOS specimens. The failure degrees of HOS specimens could be judged by the waveform features of the reflected wave, and the waveform features of reflected wave are similar in the same failure mode, regardless of the impact velocity and the number of impacts, which only affect the failure degree.