It is significant to reveal the evolution characteristics of rock deformation field at various loading rates for safe construction and disaster warning in rock engineering. In this study

uniaxial compressive experiments were conducted on red sandstone at four different loading rates (0.01

0.05

0.1 and 0.5 mm/min)

and then the evolution of deformation field was analyzed by the digital speckle correlation method. Furthermore

the relationships between the loading rate and rock deformation localization

energy accumulation and release and Poisson's ratio were studied

respectively. The results show that the peak strength and the brittleness of rock increases with the increase of loading rate. It is found that with the higher loading rate

the starting position of rock deformation localization is closer to the value of peak strength. Moreover

the corresponding stress value in this position increases generally. The Poisson's ratios of rock specimen are obvious different at various loading rates. The overall trend is that with increasing loading rate

the Poisson's ratio decreases before the deformation localization

while it increases during the stage of deformation localization. With the increase of loading rate

the density of rock deformation energy increases at the energy accumulation stage

and the energy release rate increases in the process of energy release.