Friction experiments of halite in brittle-ductile transition with high pore pressure

Abstract:

Flow stress of rock (τ) approximately linearly depends on normal stress on a shear zone (σn) minus pore pressure (p) in a brittle regime, and insensitive to σn in a fully plastic regime where pores are isolated and filled with fluid of high pressure comparable to the mean stress, like oil drops in water. How p affects τ in the transitional regime is not fully understood, although it is a key to understanding many important geological problems such as role of fluids in deformation mechanism, stress and strength profile of the crust, seismogenic depth range, and so on.

The effective normal stress σe is often given by σe = σn – α p (α: a constant around 1 in the brittle regime), and frictional resistance, by τ = f σe (f: friction coefficient). Recently, Hirth and Beeler [2015] proposed a model of the effective stress law in the transitional regime. Because of increasing ratio of real area of contact to nominal area of frictional interface, α may decrease to zero towards fully plastic regime, causing a sharper peak in the strength profile than a conventional Brace-Goetze strength profile which is sometimes referred to as “Christmas tree”. We investigated this idea by means of friction experiments at high temperature and pore pressure.

We used halite as an analogue material which undergoes a transition from brittle to fully plastic regime under convenient conditions [Shimamoto, 1986]. We conducted friction experiments of a pre-cut sliding interface filled with halite gouge with gas-medium triaxial apparatus in Hiroshima University, at 150 MPa confining pressure, from room temperature to 210 °C, and from atmospheric pressure to more than 100 MPa fluid (argon gas) pressure in a reservoir. Our preliminary result shows that the sharp peak in the flow stress is probably absent. A phenomenological smooth connection proposed by Shimamoto and Noda [2014] based on friction experiments without a jacket (i.e. atmospheric pore pressure) may work in explaining the obtained flow stresses.