The creep deformation behaviour of soft rocks is one of the most important research fields in geotechnical engineering. In this study, a theoretical model was developed to investigate the coupled effects of the grain dissolution–diffusion sliding and the hydro-mechanical interaction on the creep behaviour of soft rocks. Experimental results validated the model. The results demonstrate that the creep of soft rocks is primarily dependent on the shear stress on the sliding surface, the average thickness of the hydrated film and the amplitude of the cosinusoidal sliding surface. These three parameters can be used to describe the meso-mechanism of soft rock creep stages, i.e. the transient creep stage, steady-state creep stage, and accelerated creep stage. In addition, this study’s findings show that the chemical potential field promotes the mineral dissolution and diffusion on the grain sliding surface and changes its morphology, thereby resulting in the redistribution of stress.

中文翻译：

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固溶-扩散滑动和水-力相互作用对软岩蠕变变形的影响

软岩的蠕变变形行为是岩土工程中最重要的研究领域之一。在这项研究中，建立了一个理论模型来研究颗粒溶解-扩散滑动和水-机械相互作用对软岩蠕变行为的耦合作用。实验结果验证了该模型。结果表明，软岩的蠕变主要取决于滑动面的切应力，水合膜的平均厚度和正弦形滑动面的振幅。这三个参数可用于描述软岩蠕变阶段的细观机理，即瞬态蠕变阶段，稳态蠕变阶段和加速蠕变阶段。此外，