ABSTRACT
Rock salt was mainly a kind of mineral to be studied
in the past. More recently, it was widely used as a
kind of ideal material for the storage of natural gas,
petroleum and wastes, especially nuclear wastes
(Able & Jahangeri 1984, Lux 1984, Quintaniha de
Menezes et al. 2001, Thoms & Gehle 2000). Nu-
merous criteria had been taken into account during
the study of its mechanical properties such as its
very low permeability and porosity, and its capacity
of creeping to very large strain without fracturing
and self-healing. Since rock-like materials are typi-
cal brittle materials with complex structure, com-
posed of multi-contents, taken on evidently multi-
scale and having heterogeneous properties. To meet
the requirements of engineering activities related to
storage, investigations of the propagation rules of
stress wave travels through the surrounding rock
media such as attenuation and dispersion of stress
wave, are meaningfully important for rapid excava-
tion, drilling techniques, rock breakage by explo-
sives and nuclear explosions.
