Scale effect of shear mechanical properties of non-penetrating horizontal rock-like joints

Abstract

From the perspective of macroscopic scale, the majority of natural rock mass should be categorized as non-penetrating jointed rock mass. The existing researches in the field of scale effect of joint properties were mainly implemented on penetrating joints, which contradicts engineering practice, and is of high possibility to make the strength estimation of large natural jointed rock mass inaccurate, leading to serious loss of life and property. In response to such case, a series of numerical calculations of direct shear test on non-penetrating horizontal rock-like joints with different scales were carried out by PFC in this paper, to investigate the scale effect of shear mechanical properties of non-penetrating horizontal rock-like joints. First, the model microparameters were calibrated by three physical experiments to guarantee the precise reproduction of the mechanical performances of target rock and joint. Next, the particle parameters (average particle size dave and radius ratio μ) of model were changed, the effect of particle size on joint strength was studied by direct shear calculation, and the determining method for the values of dave and μ was suggested. Then, based on two distribution forms of non-penetrating horizontal rock-like joint (type I and type II joints), the numerical shear tests were conducted on jointed rock models with different persistence rations and model scales, and the variations of shear stress displacement curve and strength characteristics were analyzed. The results indicate: The lower the persistence ration λ of the joint, the more obvious the negative scale effect of joint shear strength. Besides, the scale effect of shear strength gradually decreases when λ > 0.5 for type I joints while λ > 0.8 for type II joints and the scale effects of joint strength parameters only emerge in the case of λ < 0.2.