Energy Dissipation and Mechanical Behavior of Rock Materials

Energy dissipation and mechanical behaviour of rock materials lie at the heart of geotechnical stability, resource extraction and civil infrastructure safety. When rock is loaded, a portion of the input energy is stored elastically and recoverable, while the remainder is dissipated through microcrack propagation, frictional sliding and plastic deformation. The balance between stored and dissipated energy governs the transition from stable deformation to sudden failure, manifesting in phenomena such as rockbursts, slope collapses and hydraulic fracturing. Recent advances have refined our understanding of how loading rate, confining pressure, temperature and pre-existing flaws influence energy conversion, leading to improved constitutive models and predictive tools. Experimental innovations, from high-speed imaging in dynamic impact tests to thermal-mechanical programmes under in situ stress, are uncovering the mechanisms by which rock damage initiates, coalesces and evolves under realistic field conditions. These insights inform safer design in tunnelling, mining and reservoir engineering, and enhance early-warning strategies for geological hazards.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have elucidated the influence of strain rate on energy evolution and impact tendency in coal and rock. Uniaxial and triaxial compression tests conducted across a range of strain rates revealed a four‐stage energy evolution process—initial damage, hardening, softening and failure. Results demonstrate that increasing strain rate promotes elastic energy generation but affects peak strength differently in uniaxial and triaxial conditions. A self‐promotion–inhibition mechanism for pre-peak energy evolution was proposed, offering new insight into the mitigation of dynamic disasters in coal and rock masses prone to impact failure.

Energy Dissipation and Mechanical Behavior of Rock Materials publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in energy dissipation and mechanical behavior of rock materials across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Elastic energy: Recoverable energy stored in rock during reversible deformation.

Dissipated energy: Energy lost through irreversible processes such as microcracking and frictional sliding.

Strain rate: Speed of deformation per unit time, influencing failure mode and energy evolution.

Constitutive model: Mathematical description of stress–strain behaviour accounting for damage and energy flow.

Split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB): Laboratory apparatus for studying dynamic mechanical properties under high strain rates.

References

1. Study on the energy evolution mechanism of coal and rock with impact tendency under different strain rates. Scientific Reports (2023).
2. Thermal Damage Constitutive Model and Brittleness Index Based on Energy Dissipation for Deep Rock. Mathematics (2022).
3. Energy Evolution and Damage Mechanism of Fractured Sandstone with Different Angles. Energies (2022).
4. Energy Dissipation and Particle Size Distribution of Granite under Different Incident Energies in SHPB Compression Tests. Shock and Vibration (2020).