Three-dimensional stress effects on time-dependent swelling behaviour of shaly rocks

This paper presents a time-dependent constitutive model that has been developed for the swelling of shaly rocks. Laboratory test results on many shales, including Queenston shale, show that the swelling of these rocks depends on the applied stresses. The applied stress in one principal stress direction reduces swelling strain not only in that direction but also in the perpendicular directions. It was found that swelling strain reductions are nonlinearly dependent on applied stress. The reduction in lateral swelling caused as a result of axial stress is modeled using the "pseudo-Poisson's effect". The proposed model is used to simulate the development of swelling strain with time under uniaxial and biaxial stress conditions. Comparison between the computed and experimental results shows that the pseudo-Poisson's effect is a key parameter for simulating the observed time-dependent swelling.