Experimental Study on the Influence of Wetting-Drying Cycle on the Strength Characteristics of Expansive Rock

After absorbing water, expansive rock will expand and soften. After losing water, expansive rock will shrink and crack. The season alternates, expansive rock repeatedly expands and shrinks, which has potential hazard to the project. So, in order to study the influence of wetting-drying cycle on the strength characteristics of expansive rock, the in-room cyclic wetting-drying test of expansive rock samples were carried out. The results showed that the cohesion c decreases greatly after the first wetting-drying process, the cohesion c attenuated by 37.1%. In the following wetting-drying processes, the decreasing rate reduced. The friction Angle decreased greatly in the first cycling, fluctuated afterwards, but the total value didn't show a great variation.