• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.391-399
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• 2020

Brittleness is one of the most important properties of rock which has a major impact not only on the failure process of intact rock but also on the response of rock mass to tunneling and mining projects. Due to the lack of a universally accepted definition of rock brittleness, a wide range of methods, including direct and indirect methods, have been developed for its measurement. Measuring rock brittleness by direct methods requires special equipment which may lead to financial inconveniences and is usually unavailable in most of rock mechanic laboratories. Accordingly, this study aimed to develop a new strength-based index for predicting rock brittleness based on the obtained base form. To this end, an innovative algorithm was developed in Matlab environment. The utilized algorithm finds the optimal index based on the open access dataset including the results of punch penetration test (PPT), uniaxial compressive and Brazilian tensile strength. Validation of proposed index was checked by the coefficient of determination (R²), the root mean square error (RMSE), and also the variance for account (VAF). The results indicated that among the different brittleness indices, the suggested equation is the most accurate one, since it has the optimal R², RMSE and VAF as 0.912, 3.47 and 89.8%, respectively. It could finally be concluded that, using the proposed brittleness index, rock brittleness can be reliably predicted with a high level of accuracy.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.535-547
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• 2022

Failure patterns of rock specimens represent valuable information about the mechanical properties and crack evolution mechanism of rock. Several kinds of research have been conducted regarding the failure mechanism of brittle material, however; the influence of brittleness on the failure mechanism of rock specimens has not been precisely considered. In the present study, experimental and numerical examinations have been made to evaluate the physical and mechanical phenomena associated with rock failure mechanisms through the uniaxial compression test. In the experimental part, Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) tests equipped with Acoustic Emission (AE) have been conducted on rock samples with three different brittleness. Then, the numerical models have been calibrated based on experimental test results for further investigation and comparing the micro-cracking process in experimental and numerical models. It can be perceived that the failure mode of specimens with high brittleness is tensile axial splitting, based on the experimental evidence of rock specimens with different brittleness. Also, the crack growth mechanism of the rock specimens with various brittleness using discrete element modeling in the numerical part suggested that the specimens with more brittleness contain more tensile fracture during the loading sequences.

• 터널과지하공간
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.29-41
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• 2023

암석의 취성은 암석의 파쇄 및 파괴특성에 주요한 영향을 미치는 인자로 알려져 있으나, 현재까지 표준화된 정의가 없고 연구자들은 취성을 정의하기 위한 다양한 취성도의 산정방식을 제안하여 오고 있다. 암석의 드릴링 및 암반의 기계굴착과정에서도 암석의 취성은 기계굴착장비의 굴진효율 혹은 암석의 굴진저항성을 평가하기 위한 중요한 파라미터로 평가되고 있으며, 다양한 취성도와 기계굴착장비의 굴진효율 사이의 상관관계를 규명하려는 연구들이 지속적으로 수행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 압입시험으로부터 암석의 취성도를 산출하기 위한 방법에 대하여 소개하고, 압입시험에서 산정되는 취성도와 기존의 암석의 일축압축강도와 간접인장강도로부터 계산되는 기존의 취성도의 상관관계에 대하여 분석하고자 하였다. 상관관계분석 결과로부터 다양한 취성도들 간의 상관관계를 확인할 수 있었으며, 압입시험으로부터 계산되는 PSI와 BI₃가 기존의 취성도들과 좋은 상관관계를 보임을 확인하였다. 또한 기존의 취성도 중에서는 B₃와 B₄가 암반기계굴착분야에서의 굴진효율 및 굴진저항성을 나타내기에 적합한 취성도인 것으로 판단되었다.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제34권6호
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• pp.697-726
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• 2023

Brittleness as an important property of rock plays a crucial role both in the failure process of intact rock and rock mass response to excavation in engineering geological and geotechnical projects. Generally, rock brittleness indices are calculated from the mechanical properties of rocks such as uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. These properties are generally determined from complicated, expensive and time-consuming tests in laboratory. For this reason, in the present research, an attempt has been made to predict the rock brittleness indices from simple, inexpensive, and quick laboratory test results namely dry unit weight, porosity, slake-durability index, P-wave velocity, Schmidt rebound hardness, and point load strength index using multiple linear regression, exponential regression, support vector machine (SVM) with various kernels, generating fuzzy inference system, and regression tree ensemble (RTE) with boosting framework. So, this could be considered as an innovation for the present research. For this purpose, the number of 39 rock samples including five igneous, twenty-six sedimentary, and eight metamorphic were collected from different regions of Iran. Mineralogical, physical and mechanical properties as well as five well known rock brittleness indices (i.e., B₁, B₂, B₃, B₄, and B₅) were measured for the selected rock samples before application of the above-mentioned machine learning techniques. The performance of the developed models was evaluated based on several statistical metrics such as mean square error, relative absolute error, root relative absolute error, determination coefficients, variance account for, mean absolute percentage error and standard deviation of the error. The comparison of the obtained results revealed that among the studied methods, SVM is the most suitable one for predicting B₁, B₂ and B₅, while RTE predicts B₃ and B₄ better than other methods.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.349-356
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• 2020

Rock brittleness, which is closely related to the failure modes, plays a significant role in the design and construction of many rock engineering applications. However, the brittle-ductile failure transition is mostly ignored by the current statistical damage constitutive model, which may misestimate the failure strength and failure behaviours of intact rock. In this study, a new statistical damage model considering rock brittleness is proposed for brittle to ductile behaviour of rocks using brittleness index (BI). Firstly, the statistical constitutive damage model is reviewed and a new statistical damage model considering failure mode transition is developed by introducing rock brittleness parameter-BI. Then the corresponding damage distribution parameters, shape parameter m and scale parameter F₀, are expressed in terms of BI. The shape parameter m has a positive relationship with BI while the scale parameter F₀ depends on both BI and ε_e. Finally, the robustness and correctness of the proposed damage model is validated using a set of experimental data with various confining pressure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제30권5호
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• pp.401-411
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• 2022

To obtain the dynamic mechanical properties, fracture modes, energy and brittleness characteristics of Furong Baijiao coal rock, the dynamic impact compression tests under 0, 4, 8 and 12 MPa confining pressure were carried out using the split Hopkinson pressure bar. The results show that failure mode of coal rock in uniaxial state is axial splitting failure, while it is mainly compression-shear failure with tensile failure in triaxial state. With strain rate and confining pressure increasing, compressive strength and peak strain increase, average fragmentation increases and fractal dimension decreases. Based on energy dissipation theory, the dissipated energy density of coal rock increases gradually with growing confining pressure, but it has little correlation with strain rate. Considering progressive destruction process of coal rock, damage variable was defined as the ratio of dissipated energy density to total absorbed energy density. The maximum damage rate was obtained by deriving damage variable to reflect its maximum failure severity, then a brittleness index BD was established based on the maximum damage rate. BD value declined gradually as confining pressure and strain rate increase, indicating the decrease of brittleness and destruction degree. When confining pressure rises to 12 MPa, brittleness index and average fragmentation gradually stabilize, which shows confining pressure growing cannot cause continuous damage. Finally, integrating dynamic deformation and destruction process of coal rock and according to its final failure characteristics under different confining pressures, BD value is used to classify the brittleness into four grades.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.63-77
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• 2017

The failure mechanism of a deep hard rock tunnel under high geostress and high geothermalactivity is extremely complex. Uniaxial compression tests of granite at different temperatures were conducted. The complete stress-strain curves, mechanical parameters and macroscopic failure types of the rock were analyzed in detail. The brittleness index, which represents the possibility of a severe brittleness hazard, is proposed in this paperby comparing the peak stress and the expansion stress. The results show that the temperature range from 20 to $60^{\circ}C$ is able to aggravate the brittle failure of hard rock based on the brittleness index. The closure of internal micro cracks by thermal stress can improve the strength of hard rock and the storage capacity of elastic strain energy. The failure mode ofthe samples changes from shear failure to tensile failure as the temperature increases. In conclusion, the brittle failure mechanism of hard rock under the action of thermal coupling is revealed, and the analysis result offers significant guidance for deep buried tunnels at high temperatures and under high geostress.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제72권4호
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• pp.469-477
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• 2019

The understanding of tool-rock interaction mechanism is of high essence for improving the rock breaking efficiency and optimizing the drilling parameters in mechanical rock breaking. In this study, the tool-rock interaction models of indentation and cutting are carried out by employing the discrete element method (DEM) to examine the rock failure modes of various brittleness rocks and critical indentation and cutting depths of the ductile to brittle failure mode transition. The results show that the cluster size and inter-cluster to intra-cluster bond strength ratio are the key factors which influence the UCS magnitude and the UCS to BTS ratio. The UCS to BTS strength ratio can be increased to a more realistic value using clustered rock model so that the characteristics of real rocks can be better represented. The critical indentation and cutting depth decrease with the brittleness of rock increases and the decreasing rate reduces dramatically against the brittleness value. This effort may lead to a better understanding of rock breaking mechanisms in mechanical excavation, and may contribute to the improvement in the design of rock excavation machines and the related parameters determination.

• 터널과지하공간
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.325-333
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• 2014

대표적인 비재래에너지자원인 셰일가스 생산을 위해서는 수압파쇄가 핵심적인 기술이다. 암석의 취성도는 셰일가스 생산을 위한 수압파쇄 효율결정의 가장 중요한 물성 중 하나이며, 셰일의 취성도가 클수록 셰일가스 생산량이 증가하는 관계를 보인다. 암석의 취성은 다양하게 정의되며 표준화된 정의가 없어 혼란이 존재한다. 본 논문에서는 취성도의 다양한 개념들을 살펴보고 실내 실험값을 이용하여 취성도를 측정하고 각기 다르게 정의된 취성도간의 상관관계에 대해서 고찰해보았다. 일반적으로 일축압축강도와 인장강도의 비율로 나타내는 취성도와, 탄성계수와 포아송비를 이용한 취성도를 비교하였을 때 같은 암석에 대한 취성도 간에 매우 약한 양의 상관관계를 가지고 있는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 또한 포아송비의 경우 취성도에 미치는 영향이 명확하지 않은 것으로 나타났다. 수압파쇄 결과를 예측하기 위한 지표로써 취성도를 적용하기 위해서는 취성도의 개념의 표준화가 필요한 것을 알 수 있다.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.195-204
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• 2018

Based on theories of rock mechanics, rock fragmentation, mechanics of elasto-plasticity, and energy dissipation etc., a method is presented for evaluating the rock fragmentation efficiency by using plastic energy dissipation ratio as an index. Using the presented method, the fragmentation efficiency of rocks with different strengths (corresponding to soft, intermediately hard and hard ones) under indentation is analyzed and compared. The theoretical and numerical simulation analyses are then combined with experimental results to systematically reveal the fragmentation mechanism of rocks under indentation of indenter. The results indicate that the fragmentation efficiency of rocks is higher when the plastic energy dissipation ratio is lower, and hence the drilling efficiency is higher. For the rocks with higher hardness and brittleness, the plastic energy dissipation ratio of the rocks at crush is lower. For rocks with lower hardness and brittleness (such as sandstone), most of the work done by the indenter to the rocks is transferred to the elastic and plastic energy of the rocks. However, most of such work is transferred to the elastic energy when the hardness and the brittleness of the rocks are higher. The plastic deformation is small and little energy is dissipated for brittle crush, and the elastic energy is mainly transferred to the kinetic energy of the rock fragment. The plastic energy ratio is proved to produce more accurate assessment on the fragmentation efficiency of rocks, and the presented method can provide a theoretical basis for the optimization of drill bit and selection of well drilling as well as for the selection of the rock fragmentation ways.