Abstract:In order to understand salt rock damage recovery characteristics and the connection of damage and strength under the effect of confining pressure. Different test has been designed for salt rock with different confining pressure and different holding time of confining pressure. The results showed that at early loading, the salt rock elastic modulus increases gradually along with the increase of the pressure holding time, and with the increase of pressure holding time, the corresponding axial strain and lateral strain of salt rock peak stress will increase gradually. There is a negative correlation between salt rock damage and strength .With the increasing of holding time of confining pressure the intensity of salt rock gradually increasing, and finally tends to maintain a relatively stable state. The damage recovery of salt rock can be divided into rapid damage recovery phase and slow damage recovery phase under the effect of confining pressure, and there is a distinct time node for different salt rock damage recovery phase. Within a certain range, with the increasing of the strength of confining pressure in the stage of holding confining pressure, the duration of salt rock rapid damage recovery phase is gradually reduced. The duration of salt rock rapid damage recovery phase can be shorten with the increasing of the strength of confining pressure in the stage of holding confining pressure. However, with the increasing the strength of confining pressure, new damage may be caused in the salt rock.