Limestone mechanical deformation behavior and failure mechanisms: a review

In this paper, several mechanical deformation curves of limestone are reviewed, and the effects of temperature, confining pressure, and fluid are discussed. Generally, Mohr-Coulomb is used for limestone brittle fracture. The characteristic of low temperature cataclastic flow and the conditions and constitutive equations of intracrystal plastic deformation such as dislocation creep, diffusion creep, and superplastic flow are discussed in detail. Specifically, from the macroscopic and microscopic view, inelastic compression deformation (shear-enhanced compaction) of large porosity limestone is elaborated. Compared with other mechanics models and strength equations, the dual porosity (macroporosity and microporosity) model is superior and more consistent with experimental data. Previous research has suffered from a shortage of high temperature and high pressure limestone research; we propose several suggestions to avoid this problem in the future: (1) fluid-rock interaction research; (2) mutual transition between natural conditions and laboratory research; (3) the uniform strength criterion for shear-enhanced compaction deformation; (4) test equipment; and (5) superplastic flow mechanism research.