Frictional slip weakening and shear-enhanced crystallinity in simulated coal fault gouges at subseismic slip rates

Liu, Jinfeng; Hunfeld, Luuk Bernd;

2020 || YoDa Data Repository, Utrecht University, Netherlands

We report seven velocity stepping (VS) and one slide-hold-slide (SHS) friction experiments performed on simulated fault gouges prepared from bituminous coal, collected from the upper Silesian Basin of Poland. These experiments were performed at 25-45 MPa effective normal stress and 100 ℃, employing sliding velocities of 0.1-100 μm/s, using a conventional triaxial apparatus plus direct shear assembly. All samples showed marked slip weakening behaviour at shear displacements beyond ~1-2 mm, from a peak friction coefficient approaching ~0.5 to (near) steady state values of ~0.3, regardless of effective normal stress or whether vacuum dry flooded with distilled (DI) water at 15 MPa pore fluid pressure. Analysis of both unsheared and sheared samples by means of microstructural observation, micro-area X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy suggests that the marked slip weakening behaviour can be attributed to the development of R-, B- and Y- shear bands, with internal shear-enhanced coal crystallinity development. The SHS experiment performed showed a transient peak healing (restrengthening) effect that increased with the logarithm of hold time at a linearized rate of ~0.006. We also determined the rate-dependence of steady state friction for all VS samples using a full rate and state friction approach. This showed a transition from velocity strengthening to velocity weakening at slip velocities >1 μm/s in the coal sample under vacuum dry conditions, but at >10 μm/s in coal samples exposed to DI water at 15 MPa pore pressure. This may be controlled by competition between dilatant granular flow and compaction enhanced by presence of water. Together with our previous work on frictional properties of coal-shale mixtures, our results imply that the presence of a weak, coal-dominated patch on faults that cut or smear-out coal seams may promote unstable, seismogenic slip behaviour, though the importance of this in enhancing either induced or natural seismicity depends on local conditions. The data is provided in a folder with 10 subfolders for 10 experiments/samples, including friction, XRD and Raman data. Detailed information about the files in these subfolders as well as information on how the data is processed is given in the explanatory file Fan-et-al-2020-Data-Description.pdf. Contact person is Dr. Jinfeng Liu - Sun Yat-Sen University- liujinf5@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Originally assigned keywords

Corresponding MSL vocabulary keywords

MSL enriched keywords

Originally assigned sub domains
  • rock and melt physics
MSL enriched sub domains
  • rock and melt physics
  • analogue modelling of geologic processes
  • microscopy and tomography
  • geochemistry
Source http://dx.doi.org/10.24416/UU01-48I5DA
Source publisher YoDa Data Repository, Utrecht University, Netherlands
DOI 10.24416/UU01-48I5DA
Authors
Contributors
  • Experimental rock deformation/HPT-Lab (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
  • HostingInstitution

  • of Earth Sciences and Engineering (Sun Yat-Sen University), School
  • HostingInstitution

Contact
  • Liu, Jinfeng
Citation Liu, J., & Hunfeld, L. B. (2020). Frictional slip weakening and shear-enhanced crystallinity in simulated coal fault gouges at subseismic slip rates. Utrecht University. https://doi.org/10.24416/UU01-48I5DA
Collection period(s)
  • 2016-10-01 - 2020-01-31
Geo location(s)
  • 49.96072880335346, 15.384399613612231, 51.57806093491139, 21.53674470471674
  • Coal samples were collected from Brzeszcze Mine (Seam 364), in the Upper Silesian Basin of Poland, Poland