• Explosives and Blasting
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.20-28
• /
• 2008

In the design stage of a tunnel, the wall convergence is commonly estimated through an elasto-plastic analysis of the tunnel, which has been a topic drawing many researcher's attention so far. Despite its importance, however, the elasto-plastic behavior of a circular tunnel excavated in a generalized Hoek-Brown rockmass is still poorly understood. In this study, a simple munerical method based on Lee & Pietruszczak (2008) for the elasto-plastic analysis of a circular tunnel surrounded by reinforced annulus is proposed. It is assumed that the tunnel is excavated in a strain-softening rockmass obeying the generalized Hoek-Brown failure condition. The commercial code FLAC is used for the verification of the proposed method. The influence of the Hoek-Brown strength parameter a and the thickness of the reinforcement annulus on the elasto-plastic behavior around the tunnel was discussed by conducting some example analyses. The results show that the influence of these two parameters on the distribution of stresses and displacements is substantial.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.172-183
• /
• 2019

The generalized Hoek-Brown (GHB) failure criterion developed by Hoek et al. (2002) is a nonlinear function which defines a stress condition at failure of rock mass. The relevant strength parameter values are systematically determined using the GSI value. Since GSI index is a value quantifying the condition of in-situ rock mass, the GHB criterion is a practical failure condition which can take into the consideration of in-situ rock mass quality. Considering that most rock mechanics engineers are familiar with the linear Mohr-Coulomb criterion and that many rock engineering softwares incorporate Mohr-Coulomb criterion, the equations for the equivalent friction angle and cohesion were also proposed along with the release of the GHB criterion. The proposed equations, however, fix the lower limit of the minor principal stress range, where the linear best-fitting is performed, with the tensile strength of the rock mass. Therefore, if the tensile stress is not expected in the domain of analysis, the calculated equivalent friction angle and cohesion based on the equations in Hoek et al. (2002) could be less accurate. In order to overcome this disadvantage of the existing equations for equivalent friction angle and cohesion, this study proposes the analytical formula which can calculate optimal equivalent friction angle and cohesion in any minor principal stress interval, and verified the accuracy of the derived formula.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.366-372
• /
• 2014

The generalized Hoek-Brown (H-B) function provides a unique failure condition for a jointed rock mass, in which the strength parameters of rock mass are deduced from the intact values by use of the GSI value. Since it is actually the only failure criterion which accounts for the rock mass conditions in a systematic manner, the generalized H-B criterion finds many applications to the various rock engineering projects. Its nonlinear character, however, limits more active usage of this criterion. Accordingly, many attempts have been made to understand the generalized H-B condition in the framework of the M-C function. This study presents the closed-form expression relating the tangential cohesion to the tangential friction angle, which is derived by the non-dimensional stress transformation of the generalized H-B criterion. By use of the derived equation, it is investigated how the relationship between the tangential cohesion and friction angle of the generalized H-B criterion varies with the quality of rock masses. When only the variation of GSI value is considered, it is found that the tangential friction angle decreases with the increase of GSI, while the tangential cohesion increases with GSI value.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.462-470
• /
• 2012

Implementing the generalized Hoek-Brown failure criterion in the framework of the Mohr-Coulomb criterion requires the calculation of the equivalent friction angle and cohesion. In the conventional method based on the Balmer (1952)'s theory, the tangential instantaneous friction angle and cohesion are expressed in terms of the minimum principal stress ${\sigma}_3$, which does not provide the information about the dependency of the equivalent parameters on the hydrostatic pressure and the stress path. In this study, this defect of the conventional method has been overcome by representing the equivalent parameters in terms of stress invariants. Through the example implementation of the new method, the influence of the magnitude of the hydrostatic pressure and the Lode angle on the tangential instantaneous friction angle and cohesion is investigated. It turns out that the tangential instantaneous friction angle is maximum when the stress condition is triaxial extension, while the tangential cohesion is maximum when the stress condition is triaxial compression. The dependency of the equivalent Mohr-Coulomb strength parameters on the hydrostatic pressure and the Lode angle tends to be more substantial for the favorable rockmass of larger GSI value.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.480-493
• /
• 2021

Since the generalized Hoek-Brown criterion (GHB) provides an efficient way of identifying its strength parameter values with the consideration of in-situ rock mass condition via Geological Strength Index (GSI), this criterion is recognized as one of the standard rock mass failure criteria in rock mechanics community. However, the nonlinear form of the GHB criterion makes its mathematical treatment inconvenient and limits the scope of its application. As an effort to overcome this disadvantage of the GHB criterion, the explicit approximate analytical equations for the minimum principal stress, which is associated with the maximum principal stress at failure, are formulated based on the Taylor polynomial approximation of the original GHB criterion. The accuracy of the derived approximate formula for the minimum principal stress is verified by comparing the resulting approximate minimum principal stress with the numerically calculated exact values. To provide an application example of the approximate formulation, the equivalent friction angle and cohesion for the expected plastic zone around a circular tunnel in a GHB rock mass are calculated by incorporating the formula for the approximate minimum principal stress. It is found that the simultaneous consideration of the values of mi, GSI and far-field stress is important for the accurate calculation of equivalent Mohr-Coulomb parameter values of the plastic zone.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.312-326
• /
• 2022

The generalized Hoek-Brown (GHB) criterion, which is recognized as one of the standard failure conditions for rock mass, is specialized for rock engineering applications and covers a wide range of rock mass conditions. Accordingly, many research efforts have been devoted to the incorporation of this criterion into the stability analysis of rock structures. In this study, the slip-line analysis method, which is a kind of elastoplastic analysis method, is combined with the GHB failure criterion to derive analytical equations that can easily calculate the plastic radius and stress distribution in the vicinity of the circular tunnel. In the process of derivation of related formulas, it is assumed that the behavior of rock mass after failure is perfectly plastic and the in-situ stress condition is hydrostatic. In the formulation, it is revealed that the plastic radius can be calculated analytically using the two respective tangential friction angles corresponding to the stress conditions at tunnel wall and elastic-plastic boundary. It is also shown that the plastic radius and stress distribution calculated using the derived analytical equations coincide with the results of Lee & Pietruszczak's numerical method published in 2008. In the latter part of this paper, the influence of the quality of the rock mass on the size of the plastic zone, the stress distribution, and the change of the tangential friction angle was investigated using the derived analytical equations.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.225-234
• /
• 2019

A numerical stepwise approach for cavity expansion problem in strain-softening rock or soil mass is investigated, which is compatible with Mohr-Coulomb and generalized Hoek-Brown failure criteria. Based on finite difference method, plastic region is divided into a finite number of concentric rings whose thicknesses are determined internally to satisfy the equilibrium and compatibility equations, the material parameters of the rock or soil mass are assumed to be the same in each ring. For the strain-softening behavior, the strength parameters are assumed to be a linear function of deviatoric plastic strain (${\gamma}p^*$) for each ring. Increments of stress and strain for each ring are calculated with the finite difference method. Assumptions of large-strain for soil mass and small-strain for rock mass are adopted, respectively. A new numerical stepwise approach for limited pressure and plastic radius are obtained. Comparisons are conducted to validate the correctness of the proposed approach with Vesic's solution (1972). The results show that the perfectly elasto-plastic model may underestimate the displacement and stresses in cavity expansion than strain-softening coefficient considered. The results of limit expansion pressure based on the generalised H-B failure criterion are less than those obtained based on the M-C failure criterion.