Individual and combined influences of main loading parameters on granite damage development under ultrasonic vibration.

Ultrasonic vibration technology has great potential to weaken hard rocks. Understanding the effect of ultrasonic vibration loading parameters is essential to accelerate the application of this technology in practical rock engineering. In the present work, three-factor mixed-level orthogonal ultrasonic vibration rock breaking tests were conducted to investigate the influence of the main loading parameters, including confining pressure, vibration frequency, and static force, on the damage of granite specimens. The individual and combined influences were analyzed according to the porosity increase and P-wave decrease of granite specimens using the variance analysis method. The results show that the combined effect of the static force and vibration frequency mainly promotes fatigue damage of specimens, that the confining pressure determines the damage behaviour and failure mode of specimens under ultrasonic vibration, and that the confining pressure and vibration frequency are the main factors that cause the fracture concentration in the upper part of specimens, an effect mechanistically driven by the obvious load energy attenuation. The research results provide theoretical guidance for the application of ultrasonic vibration technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]