• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.194-201
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• 2008

In order to investigate the characteristics in tensile strength of transversely isotropic rock, a new anisotropic tensile failure function was suggested. According to the function, the tensile strength is minimum in the normal direction to a weakness plane and rises exponentially to its maximum on a plane perpendicular to the weakness plane. The anisotropic function is defined in terms of three strength parameters which can be identified trom direct tensile tests of transversely isotropic rocks. By incorporating the suggested function into the critical plane approach, a numerical procedure which enables to search the tensile strength and the direction of critical plane at failure was presented. The validity of the suggested numerical procedure was checked through the simulation of direct tensile tests reported in a literature. The numerical results from the simulation were in good agreements with those from the laboratory tests.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.2 s.67
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• pp.119-127
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• 2007

Based on the critical plane approach, a methodology far predicting the anisotropic strength ot transversely isotropic rock is Proposed. It is assumed that the rock failure is governed by Hoek-Brown failure criterion. In order to establish an anisotropic failure function, Mohr envelope equivalent to the original Hoek-Brown criterion is used and the strength parameters m, s are expressed as scalar functions of orientation. The conjugate gradient method, which is one of the robust optimization techniques, is applied to the failure function for searching the orientation giving the maximum value of the anisotropic function. While most of the existing anisotropic strength models can be applied only when the stress condition is the same as that of conventional triaxial compression test, the proposed model can be applied to the general 3-dimensional stress conditions. Through the simulation of triaxial compression tests for transversely isotropic rock sample, the validity of the proposed method is investigated by comparing the predicted triaxial strengths and inclinations of failure plane.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.158-166
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• 2009

As a basic study for investigating the development of the stress-induced crack in Hoek-Brown rock, a homogenization technique of elastic cracks is proposed. The onset of crack is monitored by Hoek-Brown empirical criterion, while the orientation of the crack is determined by the critical plane approach. The concept of volume averaging in stress and strain component was invoked to homogenize the representative rock volume which consists of intact rock and cracks. The formulation results in the constitutive relations for the homogenized equivalent anisotropic material. The homogenization model was implemented in the standard FEM code COSMOSM. The numerical uniaxial tests were performed under plane strain condition to check the validity of the propose numerical model. The effect of friction between the loading plate and the rock sample on the mode of deformation and fracturing was examined by assuming two different contact conditions. The numerical simulation revealed that the homogenized model is able to capture the salient features of deformation and fracturing which are observed commonly in the uniaxial compression test.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.383-391
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• 2013

A number of true triaxial tests on rock samples have been conducted since the late 1960 and their results strongly suggest that the intermediate principal stress has a considerable effect on rock strength. Based on these experimental evidence, various 3-D rock failure criteria accounting for the effect of the intermediate principal stress have been proposed. Most of the 3-D failure criteria, however, are focused on the phenomenological description of the rock strength from the true triaxial tests, so that the associated strength parameters have little physical meaning. In order to confirm the likelihood that the intermediate principal stress dependency of rock strength is related to the presence of weak planes and their distribution to the preferred orientation, true triaxial tests are simulated with the transversely isotropic rock model. The conventional Mohr-Coulomb criterion is extended to its anisotropic version by incorporating the concept of microstructure tensor. With the anisotropic Mohr-Coulomb criterion, the critical plane approach is applied to calculate the strength of the transversely isotropic rock model and the orientation of the fracture plane. This investigation hints that the spatial distribution of microstructural planes with respect to the principal stress triad is closely related to the intermediate principal stress dependency of rock strength.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.174-180
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• 2011

An anisotropic version of Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion is proposed in order to provide a strength criterion for transversely isotropic rock. The concept of fabric tensor introduced by Pietruszczak & Mroz (2001) is employed to define the friction angle and cohesion as scalar functions of the fabric tensors. The anisotroy in these two strength parameters are calculated in association with the consideration of the relative rotation between the principal stress coordinate and the principal material triad. The critical plane on which the anisotropic function maximized is found by an optimization technique based on the Lagrange multiplier method. To demonstrate the performance of the anisotropic failure criterion, conventional triaxial tests on the samples having various inclinations of weakness plane are simulated and the resulting triaxial strength and dip angle of failure plane are discussed.