Int, J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. & Geomech. Abstr. Vol. 12, pp. 271-276. Pergamon Press 1975.

Printed in Great Britain

A Study of Creep of Rocks

D. P. SINGH*
Knowledge of the time-dependent behaviour of rocks can be of considerable
help in understanding many aspects of rock engineering. Hence, it is consi-
dered essential that the time-dependent properties of rocks be investigated
in the laboratory and field.
Facility for studying time-dependent deformation was created at the Uni-
versity of Melbourne. Measures were taken to achieve a constant temperature
in the creep testing laboratory and a long-term loading machine consisting
of a gas-hydraulic system and a loading frame was designed to apply the
sustained pressure on the rock specimens. Axial and lateral deformation of
the specimens were measured by the dial gauges.
Both the axial and the lateral creep curves of Sicilian marble specimens
exhibited the three stages of the idealized creep curve. 7he creep rate in
lateral direction was found far greater than in axial direction. A power curve
was found to fit most creep curves of Sicilian marble specimens up to the
steady state stage of creep while subjected to stresses beyond their yield
strength. The mode of fi'acture of the specimens in creep tests was ~imilar
to the mode observed in the uniaxial compression tests.

INTRODUCTION mation and the rate of convergence measured in situ.

The value of deformation at which the deformation rate
The deformation behaviour of rocks is time-dependent.
Some rocks, such as gabbro and granite show little starts to accelerate is chosen as the boundary between
stability and instability [6].
time-dependent strain whereas in other rocks such as
salt, potash, trona, coal, alabaster, time-dependent Creep studies are important in the study of rock-
strain greatly exceeds the instantaneous elastic defor- bursts as well. The influence of creep on rock-bursts
mation. An understanding of time-dependent behaviour is two-fold. Firstly, the time-dependent deformation
of rocks is considered essential for further development may cause a gradual release of abutment stress and
in the fields of underground mine design, strata control, hence diminish the danger of rock-bursts. Secondly, the
seismology and in understanding many other geological occurrence of rock-bursts in between the shifts when
and geophysical phenomena occurring in the earth's the ground is not influenced by mining operations, can
crust. be explained satisfactorily, if the time-dependent
Several workers have studied creep (time-dependent strength of rocks is taken into consideration [7].
deformation at constant load) of pillars in underground Pomeroy [8] carried out creep experiments on a
mines, particularly salt and potash mines [1-6]. These number of coal specimens and found that anthracite
studies have indicated that deformation of pillars does did not creep (within the limits of sensitivity of the
not occur instantaneously but increases with time. Pil- equipment used) and always failed explosively. He
lars which appear stable after mining may deteriorate related this to the frequent occurrence of out-bursts
with time and subsequently fail due to the development in anthracite mines. If coal creeps, the stresses are easily
of limiting vertical deformation. Pillar failure takes accommodated as workings advance and the strength
place at a range of vertical stresses; failure at high of coal is not exceeded; but if coal does not creep,
stresses taking place earlier than at low stresses. as is the case with anthracite, its strength is exceeded
The knowledge of deformational characteristics of and this results in violent outbursts.
the supporting pillars is essential for designing the m i n e The results of creep studies are useful for predicting
workings, and also helps in determining the life of the slope failure as well. Saito 1-9] has described a method
pillars underground. The time taken by a pillar to reach of predicting the time of slope failure by means of
an unstable condition can be calculated from an exper- steady-state creep rate. In a later paper he has also
imental value of the maximum possible vertical defor- described another method of predicting time of a land-
slide by the tertiary creep method 1-10]. It is quite
likely that sometimes only tertiary stage creep is
* Reader in Mining Engineering, Institute of Technology, Banaras observed because of the late installation of devices at
Hindu University, Varanasi-221005, India. the site.
271
272
EXPERIMENTAL
It is important that suitable creep laws be evolved
to find out the stability of existing as well as future
openings in rocks which show deformation with time.
Therefore, it was decided to establish the necessary
laboratory facilities for studying the creep behaviour
of rocks. Some of the rocks selected for the present
study were uniform and homogenous such as Sicilian
marble and the rest were mine rocks supplied by a
number of Mining Companies which sponsored the
present project through the Australian Mineral Indus-
tries Research Association.
The study of time-dependent strain has many exper-
imental difficulties. The investigation must be carried
out under controlled condition of temperature and
humidity. The sustained load should be constant
throughout the experiment. The strain measuring ar-
rangement should be sensitive enough to show small
strain in the specimen.
A room in the basement of Mining Department, Mel-
bourne University was selected to house the long-term -
loading equipment. An electric heater with thermostat
control and a fan was used to heat the room. No ar-
rangement was made for cooling. The temperature of
the room was maintained at 76°F and it was observed
that this temperature remained constant even when the
outside temperature exceeded 85°F. The temperature
and humidity were continuously recorded by a Casella
temperature and humidity recording instrument. The
temperature was constant within _+0"5°F and humidity
_+5%. The latter was found to vary by less than 1%
during the week-end when the doors of the laboratory
were kept constantly closed [11].
Long-term loading apparatus
The long-term loading machine consisted of a gas-
hydraulic system and a loading frame. Two such units rust, Tellus 33 hydraulic oil was used in the system.
were installed in the temperature controlled room.
The main component in the gas-hydraulic system of a small Blackhawk hand pump and a small reservoir
was an intensifier which enabled the use of compressed
Fig. 1. General view of long-term loading machines in the tempera-
ture controlled room.
D . P . Singh
' i= .~i~cRs --i _
i~4, z
= - 5 i ° /- - ~
'°
Fig. 2. Section of the long-term loading frame.
nitrogen at a maximum pressure of 1000 lb/in 2 to de-
velop a fluid pressure of 10,000 lb/in 2. The intensifier
was designed and made in the Mining Department,
University of Melbourne. The supply of gas to the in-
tensifier was controlled by the cylinder valve. Two
C.I.G. gas regulators were used in series with each
cylinder in order to reduce the pressure in stages (Fig.
1). At a particular setting of the cylinder valve, the gas
was supplied continuously at a constant pressure. A
small displacement of the ram caused virtually no
change in the gas pressure and hence no change in
the fluid pressure.
There was virtually no leakage of fluid and to avoid
The priming unit of the hydraulic circuit consisted
for the hydraulic fluid.
The fluid pressure acted on a 3 in. dia ram which
formed the lower platen of the loading frame. The
upper platen was flat and rigid. Figure 2 gives the con-
structional details of this loading unit. A maximum
load of 70,000 lb could be applied by this system. The
ram was sealed with Shamban glass filled teflon double
delta seal. This enabled an applied load to be held
almost indefinitely.
The hydraulic pressure was read on a 0~10,000 lb/in 2
range pressure gauge of 10 in. face, calibrated to
_+25% accuracy.
The upper platen was fixed parallel to the lower
platen by using dial gauges which could be read to
0.0001 in. Hoskins and Horino [12] found that fixed
head testing did not affect compressive strength of
rocks if the parallelism of the ends of the specimens
did not exceed 8 min (i.e. 0.005 in. in 2.125 in.). The
present method of preparing the ends of the specimen
ensured this condition.
 A Study of Creep of Rocks 273

Once a specimen develops steady state creep, it may

fail below its maximum strength, if the load is sustained
for a sufficiently long time. During the tertiary stage
of creep, the strain increases at an increasing rate till
the specimen ruptures. Accelerated strain rate is
expected in the tertiary stage as the specimen becomes
weaker and increasingly fractured. In many tests ter-
tiary stage creep was missed due to the rapid failure
of the specimen at this stage.

Lateral-creep
Figure 4 also shows the creep in the lateral direction
(perpendicular to the direction of loading) for the Sici-
lian marble specimen (TC-33). It shows that the creep
rate (de/d0 in lateral direction at this sustained stress
(12,500 lb/in 2) is far greater than in the axial direction.
This type of creep behaviour at a sustained stress close
to the maximum strength of the specimen seems justi-
fied in the light of reported dilatancy i.e. faster lateral
strain rate than axial strain rate [13]. Another impor-
tant observation is that both axial- and lateral-creep
curves follow the same pattern as far as different stages
Fig. 3. Close view of long-term loading machine.
of creep are concerned.

Creep equations
Stram-measuring device
Empirical equations were derived for many creep
A number of methods has been used for measuring tests done in the present investigations. A power curve
strain in the rock specimens during creep studies. Opti- of the form
cal-mechanical systems, strain gauges and dial gauges =a t s' (1)
have been used frequently. The optical mechanical sys- where, = straine
tem are time consuming and strain gauges show long- t -- time and
term drift. Dial gauges were preferred in the present a,b = constants,
work due to their simplicity and economy. The axial was found to fit the creep data up to the end of the
and lateral deformations of the specimens were noted steady state region in most tests.
periodically by means of two axial dial gauges and two The equation for the primary stage axial-creep curve
transverse dial gauges. The Mercer dial gauges used of the specimen TC-33 (Fig. 4) is
in this work were of 0"2 in. range and read to 0-0001 in. e = 0"4395 t 0 " 4 9 2 9 X 10-4, (2)
The dial gauges were mounted on a circular plate
attached to the lower platen and measured the defor- where t is the time in min that elapsed after the sus-
mation of the specimens by measuring the loading pis- tained load was applied. Its correlation coefficient is
ton displacement. To prevent damage to dial gauges 0-9972. A straight line equation for steady state creep
due to the fracture of the specimen, the axial dial is
gauges were spring mounted and the lateral ones were
E = (0-03 t + 2-5) x 10 -4, (3)
mounted on magnets. A steel cylinder surrounded the
specimen to prevent its fragments from flying off at
the time of fracture. This also limited the travel of the I I I I [ I I
piston after the specimen had fractured (Fig. 3).
40 ~"
? ~0
0 x
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS x 30 .c:_
.£

The axial-creep curves

20
Figure 4 shows the axial- and lateral-creep behaviour
of a typical Sicilian marble specimen. All the three
stages of a creep curve, i.e. primary (transient), second- -- iO

ary (steady state) and tertiary (accelerated) are exhi-

v I " ',1 I I " I ; I 1
bited. Instantaneous elastic strain is not included. 2o 40 60 aO I~ I~ ,~
In the primary creep region, the strain increases at Time, min
a decreasing rate and it is followed by secondary creep Fig. 4. Axial- and lateral-creep curves of Sicilian marble at a constant
in which the strain rate is constant (0"02 x 10-4/min). pressure of 12,500 lb/in 2.

R.M.M.S. 12,,9 B
274 D . P . Singh

I F I I I I (10-20rain). The stress was next increased to a higher

o'= 13,400 Ib/In z level, the deformations were measured and this pro-

2_o.,,2- cedure was repeated till the specimen fractured.

Figure 5 shows the strain-time curve of North
•~ 08 -- Broken Hill ore (NBH 16 EHS 232) at different stresses.
The general trend is that strain rate increases with in-
u~ 7,~,......~"E~E'~2,200 ilo/i n2
creasing stress.

I I J J
0 20 40 60
Time,
Fig. 5. Axial strain-time curves of North Broken Hill ore.
where t is the time in min after secondary creep has
started and the correlation coefficient is 0.9980.
An attempt was also made to represent both primary
and secondary creep by one equation. The following
power equation was found to fit well with the correla-
tion coefficient of 0.9968.
• = 0.4205 t °s°44 x 10 -¢.
Since a power equation was found to fit the data
up to the end of secondary stage creep for this test,
similar equations were found for other tests. The corre-
lation coefficients for almost all the Sicilian marble
specimens tested were quite high (in most cases more
than 0-99) and showed that a power curve fits the creep
data quite well for specimens subjected to stresses
beyond their yield strength.
The equation of the lateral-creep curve up to the
secondary stage region of the Sicilian marble specimen
TC-33 is
• = l 1 6 1 0 t °'569° × 10 - 4 (5)
and the correlation coefficient is 0"9920.
Effect of stress level on creep tests
Strain-time behaviour of some rocks was studied by
incremental stress method. In these experiments a par-
ticular stress was maintained for 2-3 hr and deforma-
tion of the specimen was measured at frequent intervals
11,5 o°o 7
Ib/
Figure 6 shows the strain-time behaviour of Appin
colliery shale. In this case the data are scattered and
J I there are points which show sudden increase in the
80 I00 120
rain deformation. Since Appin colliery shale failed along the
weakness planes, the strain-time curve of this rock is
probably more representative of creep along the pre-
existing planes of weakness than of the rock material
itself.
Figure 7 shows the effect of stress on creep behaviour
of Sicillian marble specimen TC-39. The strain rate in-
creases with increasing stress and accelerated stage
creep is developed before failure.
In these creep curves the first point does not give
the actual strain value due to time effect alone but in-
(4) cludes elastic strain also. Steady stress could be main-
tained only after a few minutes of loading at the desired
stress. The difficulty in these experiments was that little
effect was produced when the stress was low and high
accelerating creep and failure occurred, when it was
high.
At low stresses, it is difficult to decide whether a
curve is tending towards a zero strain or some finite
value, especially if the strain rate is small and decreas-
ing at a slow rate. In these experiments, the rate of
strain during the steady state stage of creep is the best
method of comparison as the measurements in this
region are independent of the initial adjustment of the
load.
Mode of fracture in creep tests
The modes of fracture of the specimens in creep tests
were the same as in uniaxial compression tests. Wom-
beyan and Sicilian marble specimens fractured either
in oblique shear or in double cone shear fracture at
an angle acutely inclined to the direction of compres-

t I ~' I I I r r F [ I I [ I 1
!
Foflure
280 --
2c

240--
~t IE i ~ailure 2 -
10
200-- 12,000 Ib/in
T c
O
F2
16o / ( 7 : 2 4 0 0 Ib/in 2 ~r=2300 Ib/in 2
._E
o
4- x
o3 ,ct O.~

0-8
0.4 ~ o ' = 2200 Ib/in 2 04

J I I I [, I
40 20 40 60 80 tOO r20
Time, rain Time, rain
Fig. 6. Axial strain time curves of Appin colliery shale. Fig. 7. Axial strain-time curves of Sicilian marble.
 A Study of Creep of Rocks
sion. Sometimes combined fracture was also observed,
the tensile fracture being developed due to the effect
of wedging of shear cone. North Broken Hill ore also
fractured in shear. Mt. Isa. Greenstone and Appin col-
liery shale fractured along the weakness planes.
CONCLUSIONS
All the three stages of an idealized creep curve were
observed in the Sicilian marble specimens. The steady
state creep rate was found to increase with the in-
creased stress in most rocks tested in the present inves-
tigations.
The creep rate in lateral direction was found far
greater than in the axial direction when the specimens
were subjected to sustained stresses greater than their
yield strength and both axial- and lateral-creep curves
follow the same pattern as far as different stages of
creep are concerned.
A power curve was found to fit most creep curves
of Sicilian marble specimens up to the steady state
stage of creep when subjected to stresses beyond their
yield strength.
Incremental stress method indicated that the steady
state creep rate increases with increasing stress.
The mode of fracture of most specimens in the creep
rig was similar to the mode observed during the uniax-
ial compression tests.
Acknowledgement--The author is grateful to Mr. W. E. Bamford,
Senior Lecturer in Rock Mechanics, University of Melbourne, for
his guidance in the exPerimental work and preparation of this paper.
Thanks are due to Mr. J. R. Lawson and, Mr. M. Ogden for their
valuable help in carrying out the tests. The author is obliged to
275
the Australian Mineral Industries Research Association and the Uni-
versity of Melbourne for providing the necessary financial help for
this project.
Received 10 February 1975.
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significance to mining engineering. 2nd Int. Conf. Strata Control,
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mines. Proc. 4th Syrup. Rock Mech., H. L. Hartman Ed., (Penn.
State Univ.), pp. 11-17 (1961).
3. Barron K. and Toews N. A. Deformation around a mine shaft
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514 (1964),
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determining compressive strength of rock samples, U.S. Bur.
Rept. Invest. 7171, 22 (1968).
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