Effect of Loading Rate on the Mechanical Properties of Weakly Cemented Sandstone

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I recommend reorganization of paper.  The chapters Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions should be essential elements of the manuscript. Provide information about taken samples in the Materials and Methods chapter. I have posted some remarks in the PDF file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

请参阅附件。

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The article focuses on the research background that high-intensity mining activities in weakly cemented rock formations are very likely to lead to damage and rupture of the surrounding rock body and induce such hazards as flaking and roofing in the roadway, and constructs a specimen model by PFC software, conducts uniaxial compression numerical simulation experiments and analysis, obtains the stress-strain, damage rupture, acoustic emission and its energy evolution law of weakly cemented sandstone under different loading rates, and elucidates the influence of mining intensity on the weakly cemented rock The effects of mining intensity on deformation damage of weakly cemented stones were explained. The results of this paper reveal that when underground mining activities are carried out, the mining speed is too fast to induce disaster accidents in underground engineering and provide the theoretical basis for safe underground mining. However, the paper also has the following shortcomings, it is recommended to modify :

1 A large number of articles have been published on the mechanical properties of weakly cemented sandstones, and the introduction of the report does not describe the latest progress and shortcomings of the existing research in a summary account of the previous studies.

2 Weakly cemented sandstones are characterized by low strength, pronounced grain structure, and large pores, and the article characterizes only the uniaxial compressive strength, while other physical and mechanical properties (porosity) are not fully characterized.

3 This paper has the problem of misuse of words and grammatical errors in some places. The author is requested to carefully revise and polish the wording of the article. such as "studied the rock fracture morphology and crack propagation by constructing the specimen geometry using particle units, contacting model formation interactions, and performing an iterative analysis to bring the macroscopic mechanical properties of numerical specimens closer to the mechanical properties of natural materials……", "It can be seen that the overall deformation trends of the stress–strain curves under the different loading rates are similar and can be subdivided into four stag-es—compression, linear elasticity, plastic yielding, and post-peak damage……". etc.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc