Abstract
The presence of cracks at the surface of rock excavations can influence the stability of the excavations. In this study, failure behaviour of open and closed cracks under different loading conditions was investigated. For this purpose, the compression tests on the rock specimens were simulated using heterogeneous Abaqus models. The simulated rock specimens included a central circular hole with open or closed flaws positioned at different inclination angles. Results showed different behaviours for open and closed cracks under pure compression, while their behaviours under shear and tensile loads were similar. The results showed when the cracks were subjected to pure compression, the relative displacement between the crack surfaces in the closed and the open cracks were different which resulted in different fracturing behaviours. In this condition, the open cracks relocated the failure zone around the hole. The presented results might be helpful to mitigate failures around underground excavations.
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