Experimental study of the effect of temperature on creep of salt rock under hydrostatic pressures

Salt rock is part of the group of inorganic chemical sedimentary rocks and is often made up of halite. One of the characteristics of soft materials is the shape variation related to the time or creep behavior. Creep is known as an irreversible deformation at the time and is often found in soft rocks such as rock salt, coal, and soft sedimentary rocks. Therefore, one of the basic requirements in the design of soft rock structural engineering is the correct modeling of the creep strain. One of the factors affecting the salt creep is the temperature. Knowing of the rate of rocks creep, especially the heat-treated rock salt, helps to promote the implementation of work in various oil and underground projects. In this study, the effect of temperature on the triaxial creep of salt rock has been studied. These tests have been performed under hydrostatic stress conditions, because these conditions usually prevail in the depths. Therefore, differential stress is zero in all states. Results show that with increasing temperature, the strain rate of salt rock increases nonlinearly and by increasing the confining pressure, the strain rate decreases.