Effect of cyclic loading on dissolution-precipitation creep

The recrystallization creep of water-wetted sodium chloride, calcium carbonate, and ammonium nitrate powders is studied under the conditions of static and cyclic loading. For the two former salts, a drastic acceleration of the creep is revealed upon the passage from the static to the cyclic regime; when returning to the static regime, the creep rate appears to be close to the initial one. For ammonium nitrate, no acceleration of the creep is observed. When the samples are tested in nonsolvent media (heptane and Vaseline oil), the effect is not observed. A mechanism is proposed to explain the observed phenomena.