Mesoscale Investigation of Shock Wave Effects in Dry and Water-saturated Sandstone

In this paper, the behavior of natural sandstone under hypervelocity impact is investigated numerically. Sandstone essentially consists of cemented quartz grains, it can be generally considered as a polygranular structure with air or water-filled pores. In order to study the influence of pores and water filling on the behavior of sandstone under shock loading, a numerical investigation at the mesoscale is performed. We explicitly resolve pores and the closure of pores in a homogeneous and isotropic quartz matrix. The quartz matrix is described with an equation of state and a strength model; the pore geometry is simplified. Two-dimensional planar shock simulations are conducted in order to analyze effects of quartz strength and water-saturation on pore crushing. Averaging is used to perform a macroscale analysis of the dependencies of pressure and shock velocity on particle velocity. The simulation results shall enhance the basis for the development of accurate macroscale sandstone models that take the water content into account.