Recent concern over the potential for creep induced development of a damaged rock zone adjacent to shafts and rooms at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has motivated the formulation of a coupled constitutive description of continuum salt creep and damage. This constitutive model gives time-dependent inelastic flow and pressure-sensitive damage in crystalline solids. Initially the constitutive model was successfully used to simulate multiaxial, i.e. true triaxial, experiments obtained at relatively high, 2.5 to 20 MPa, confining pressures. Predictions of the complete creep curve, including the heretofore unmodeled tertiary creep, were also demonstrated. However, comparisons of model predictions with data were hampered because the bulk of the creep data existing on WIPP salt was intentionally obtained under confining pressures typically greater than 15 MPa, in an attempt to match the underground in situ lithostatic pressure level. It was realized that the high confining pressures suppressed tertiary creep and resulted in better defined steady state creep responses. To address the tertiary creep process directly, a number of creep tests were conducted at lower confining pressures for the explicit purpose of creating dilatant behavior.
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