Journal
ROCK MECHANICS AND ROCK ENGINEERING
Volume 42, Issue 2, Pages 229-258Publisher
SPRINGER WIEN
DOI: 10.1007/s00603-009-0177-3
Keywords
Damage mechanics; Excavation Damaged/Disturbed Zone (EDZ); fracture process; inhomogeneity; anisotropy; realistic modeling
Funding
- Korea-China Young Scientist Exchange Program (2005)
- National High Technology develop Plan (863 Plan) [2007AA06Z108]
- National Basic Research Program (973 Program) of the China [2007CB209405]
- State Scholarship Fund of P. R. China [2003821178]
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When modeling the mechanical behavior of underground excavations, it is necessary to include the influence of the rock mass characteristics on the Excavation Damaged/Disturbed Zone (EDZ). In this paper, the Realistic Failure Process Analysis code, RFPA, is used to model the extent of the EDZ. The inhomogeneous characteristics of rock at the mesoscopic level are included by assuming that the material properties of the constituent elements conform to a Weibull distribution; the anisotropy is incorporated as a transversely isotropic medium; the non-elastic characteristic is simulated via an elastic damage-based constitutive law. A finite element program is adopted as the basic stress analysis tool. In this study, a notable feature is that no a priori assumptions need to be made about where and how fracture and failure will occur - cracking can take place spontaneously and can exhibit a variety of mechanisms when certain local stress conditions are met. The deformation and failure process of anisotropic rock around excavations of different geometries is analyzed, and compared to experimental tests, showing similar fracture patterns. Additionally, the effect of confining stress and of different material layers is modeled and discussed. It is found that the model clearly illustrates that fracturing, both initiation and propagation, occurs as a combination of the stress concentrations and weakness planes introduced via the transverse anisotropy - which could represent either foliations or ubiquitous joint sets.
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