Effect of pore pressure on deformation and unstable snap-back for shear band and elastic rock system

Abstract

Fast Lagrangian analysis of continua(FLAC) was used to study the influence of pore pressure on the mechanical behavior of rock specimen in plane strain direct shear, the distribution of yielded elements, the distribution of displacement and velocity across shear band as well as the snap-back (elastic rebound) instability. The effective stress law was used to represent the weakening of rock containing pore fluid under pressure. Numerical results show that rock specimen becomes soft (lower strength and hardening modulus) as pore pressure increases, leading to higher displacement skip across shear band. Higher pore pressure results in larger area of plastic zone, higher concentration of shear strain, more apparent precursor to snap-back (unstable failure) and slower snap-back. For higher pore pressure, the formation of shear band-elastic body system and the snap-back are earlier; the distance of snap-back decreases; the capacity of snap-back decreases, leading to lower elastic strain energy liberated beyond the instability and lower earthquake or rockburst magnitude. In the process of snap-back, the velocity skip across shear band is lower for rock specimen at higher pore pressure, showing the slower velocity of snap-back.