A nonlinear creep damage model for salt rock

In the creep tests, stress is no longer a constant and increases gradually under the influence of damage occurring during accelerating creep, which is a slow-loading process rather than a conventional creep. With the accumulation of the damage over time, the actual stress increases greatly. The increased actual stress not only generates loading strain but also causes the steady creep rate to rise. This coupling possibly explains why salt rock presents nonlinear accelerating characteristics at the accelerating creep stage. In this work, the constraint of the present creep concept was overcome by assuming that the acceleration creep phase is a coupling process of loading and creeping. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the total strain in this phase is equal to the sum of loading strain and creeping strain. A new nonlinear constitutive equation for creep was then derived, and the mechanisms underlying the nonlinear accelerating characteristics emerging at the stage of accelerating creep are further explained. A step-loading experiment on salt rock was performed for a period of six months. The characteristics of accelerating creep appeared in the last step of loading. This new nonlinear creep damage constitutive model was used to fit and analyze the test data. Obtained results show that this model fits well to these test data and also favorably represents the nonlinear characteristics of accelerating creep, thus supporting the model’s validity