Abstract
Transversely isotropic rocks are commonly encountered in rock engineering practices, and their strength and failure behavior is often governed by the property of anisotropy. The particle flow modeling method was utilized to investigate the failure mechanism of transversely isotropic rocks subject to uniaxial compressive loading. The details for establishing transversely isotropic rock models were first presented, and then a parametric study was carried out to look into the effect of interface properties on the failure mode and strength of transversely isotropic rock models by varying the interface dip angle. The smooth joint model was incorporated to create interfaces for the completeness of establishing transversely isotropic rock models with the particle flow modeling method. Accordingly, three failure modes observed in transversely isotropic rock models with varying dip angles were tensile failure across interfaces, shear failure along interfaces, and tensile failure along interfaces. Furthermore, the interface mechanical parameters were found to differently influence the failure behavior of transversely isotropic rock models. The bonded joint cohesion and bonded joint friction angle that contribute to the shear strength of interfaces have considerable influence on the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) values, while the joint coefficient of friction and joint tensile strength have a slight influence on the UCS values. The findings in this paper indicated the importance of interfaces in estimating failure behavior of transversely isotropic rocks.
Highlights
The dominant anisotropy or transverse isotropy of geological materials, especially of foliated metamorphic rocks, such as slates, gneisses, schist, and sedimentary rocks with bedding planes, leads to complicated failure behaviors [1]
The design and stability analysis of underground structures excavated in anisotropic rock masses, for instance, require a complete understanding of the failure behavior of the rock materials
This study aims to better understand the influence of mechanical properties of bedded layers on the failure behavior of transversely isotropic rocks through a particle flow modeling method
Summary
The dominant anisotropy or transverse isotropy of geological materials, especially of foliated metamorphic rocks, such as slates, gneisses, schist, and sedimentary rocks with bedding planes, leads to complicated failure behaviors [1]. The design and stability analysis of underground structures excavated in anisotropic rock masses, for instance, require a complete understanding of the failure behavior of the rock materials. Engineering practice has suggested that the rock anisotropy is of importance in the stabilization of underground excavations in bedded rock masses [2,3]. The boreholes might become unstable if the deviation angle of drilled well applied to sub-horizontal bedding planes is very high due to rock strength anisotropy [4,5,6,7,8]. Okland et al [4] carried out hollow cylinder tests to study the critical bedding inclination angle of shale that can induce severe borehole damage during extended reach
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