Objective Carbonaceous mudstone exhibits low mechanical strength, water-induced disintegration, and reduced structural compactness. It is widely distributed in the mountainous strata of Southwestern China, where tunneling activities frequently traverse formations dominated by carbonaceous mudstone. The surrounding rocks are subjected to prolonged coupled effects of in-situ stress and groundwater seepage pressure, which complicates the creep behavior of carbonaceous mudstone. Constitutive models are essential for characterizing creep-related mechanical properties and deformation mechanisms. However, current models derived from elastoplastic theory inadequately address hydro-mechanical coupling effects during creep. Therefore, establishing a coupled hydro-mechanical creep constitutive model is imperative for accurate deformation prediction in geotechnical engineering. Methods This study conducted laboratory creep tests under hydro-mechanical coupling conditions on carbonaceous mudstone samples collected from secondary lining fracture zones in the Yanglin Tunnel. The experiments revealed the evolution of deformation characteristics and macro-micro fracture mechanisms throughout the creep process. A three-stage nonlinear viscoelastic-plastic creep model incorporating hydro-mec-hanical coupling was developed based on rheological and elastoplastic theories, and parameter identification methods were established. The theoretical curves showed strong agreement with the experimental data, accurately captured the complete creep behavior of carbonaceous mudstone, and demonstrated the model's validity for engineering applications. Results and Discussions 1) Creep curves exhibited stepwise progression, with deformation increasing significantly under higher osmotic pressures and reduced maximum bearing capacities. Failure deviatoric stress decreased exponentially with rising osmotic pressure. At constant confining pressure, elevated osmotic pressure shortened the total creep duration before failure. 2) Volumetric strain dilation occurred earlier under 23 MPa osmotic pressures compared to 1 MPa, which indicated accelerated crack initiation and unstable creep progression. 3) Accelerated creep rates manifested as nonlinear increases driven by coupled osmotic-deviatoric stress effects on crack damage evolution, which reflected macroscopic fracture propagation. 4) Under 7 MPa confining pressure, osmotic pressure reduced radial crack control and yielded stochastic failure modes such as composite fractures at 3 MPa. At 14 MPa confining pressure, macroscopic failure patterns became homogenized across osmotic pressures due to enhanced crack confinement. 5) SEM analysis revealed that tensile and shear fractures dominated microscale failure. Osmotic pressure raised intergranular reorganization, including fracture, refinement, and sliding, to form stress-adaptive microstructures. 6) Model-experiment consistency validated the applicability of the model across creep stages, including decay/steady-state creep at low stress and acceleration at high stress, which confirmed its capacity to characterize hydro-mechanical coupling effects. Conclusions 1) Osmotic pressure intensifies creep deformation and reduces long-term strength in carbonaceous mudstone, inducing failure under lower deviatoric stresses. 2) Under low confining pressures, osmotic pressure reduces radial crack confinement, increasing stochastic failure mo-des characterized by composite fracture patterns. 3) At the microscopic level, osmotic pressure alters fracture morphologies: tensile fractures exhibit scaly brittle surfaces and root-like patterns, whereas shear fractures display dimples and transgranular cracks. The microstructural fracture patterns correlate well with macroscopic failure modes. 4) The proposed nonlinear viscoelastic-plastic creep model effectively characterizes full-stage creep behavior under varying confining/osmotic pressures. The model parameters derived from laboratory tests produce theoretical curves that closely match the experimental data by considering confining pressure and osmotic pressure as variables.
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