Characteristics of the unloading process of rocks under high initial stress

The unloading process of rocks under high initial stress is complex, and verifying the mechanism of the unloading process in the field or in a laboratory is not straightforward. In this study, the unloading process of rocks under high initial stress was characterised by a mathematical physics model, which was then implemented in the finite element program LS-DYNA for analysis. In particular, the implicit and explicit methods were performed in sequence in the finite element simulation of rocks with initial stresses. In the numerical simulation, the characteristics of the dynamic unloading process of rocks were investigated for various peak initial stresses, initial stress release paths and initial stress release rates (ISRRs). The numerical results indicated that the rock failure could be induced by the release of the initial stress; furthermore, there is a relationship between the magnitude of the unloading failure and the peak initial stresses, the initial stress release paths and the ISRRs. When the initial stresses were at the same level, the equivalent initial stress release rate (EISRR) was introduced to quantitatively describe the characteristics of the unloading process. Using the numerical results, the unloading failure process was characterised, and a method for the static stress initialisation-dynamic unloading of rock was developed. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.