Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations using Particle Flow Code (PFC2D) were performed to study the effects of joint separation and joint overlapping on the full failure behavior of rock bridges under direct shear loading. Through numerical direct shear tests, the failure process is visually observed and the failure patterns are achieved with reasonable conformity with the experimental results. The simulation results clearly showed that cracks developed during the test were predominantly tension cracks. It was deduced that the failure pattern was mostly influenced by both of the joint separation and joint overlapping while the shear strength is closely related to the failure pattern and its failure mechanism. The studies revealed that shear strength of rock bridges are increased with increasing in the joint separation. Also, it was observed that for a fixed cross sectional area of rock bridges, shear strength of overlapped joints are less than the shear strength of non-overlapped joints.

The key features of an intelligent and dynamic design methodology for rock engineering projects has been introduced and summarized firstly, which include some new functions such as intelligent recognition of mechanical rockmass parameters, strategies to select modeling methods and codes, integrated feedback modeling and information, and technical auditing in rock engineering design process. Then typical examples of applications of the dynamic design methodology in some large slopes, underground powerhouses in China are summarized. The discussions are given for the future of the methodology.

Brittle failure of rock is a classical rock mechanics problem. Rock failure not only involves initiation and propagation of single crack, but also is a complex problem associated with initiation, propagation and coalescence of many cracks. As the most important feature of rock material properties is the heterogeneity, the Weibull statistical distribution is employed in the rock failure process analysis (RFPA) method to describe the heterogeneity in rock properties. In this paper, the applications of the RFPA method in geotechnical engineering and rockburst modeling are introduced with emphasis, which can provide some references for relevant researches.