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Abstract

Unconsolidated, undrained triaxial deformation tests were performed on sandy facies Opalinus Clay at 50 MPa confining pressure to characterize the effect of water and microfabric orientation on the deformation behavior, mechanical properties, and P-wave velocity evolution. Dry and wet (≈ 8 and > 95% initial water saturation, respectively) samples with 12.6 ± 0.4 vol% porosity were deformed parallel and perpendicular to the bedding direction at a constant strain rate of 5 × 10–6 s−1. Dry samples revealed semi-brittle behavior and exhibited strain localization at failure, while deformation was more ductile at saturated conditions, promoting stable, slow faulting. Peak strength, Young’s modulus, and number of cumulative acoustic emissions decreased significantly for wet samples compared to dry samples; the opposite was observed for Poisson’s ratio. P-wave velocity anisotropy was significantly altered by differential stress, primarily due to the interplay between pore and fracture closure and stress-induced microcrack formation. For samples that were deformed perpendicular to bedding, we observed a reduction and reversal of P-wave velocity anisotropy with increasing differential stress, whereas anisotropy of parallel samples increased. The results suggest that water saturation reduces the pressure at the brittle-ductile transition and that the elastic properties and anisotropy of sandy facies Opalinus Clay can be significantly altered in an anisotropic stress field, e.g., adjacent to fault zones or tunnel excavations. Changes in elastic anisotropy are primarily controlled by the orientation between the pre-existing microfabric and the maximum principal stress direction, stress magnitude, and the degree of water saturation.