Strain‐softening analysis of a spherical cavity

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper studies the excavation of a spherical cavity subjected to hydrostatic initial stresses in the infinite homogeneous and isotropic rock mass with strain‐softening Mohr–Coulomb (M‐C) and Hoek–Brown (H‐B) behaviors. Numerical solutions of the spherical cavity are obtained and the application to determining stress–strain curve of strain‐softening M‐C and H‐B rock mass is studied. A closed‐form solution for the elastic–brittle–plastic medium is introduced first, and then a numerical procedure that simplifies the strain‐softening process into a series of brittle–plastic ones is presented. The approach is validated against the facts that the strain‐softening process evolves into a brittle–plastic one when the softening slope is very steep, whereas it evolves into an elasto‐plastic one when the softening slope approaches zero. Numerical solutions for the prediction of displacements and stresses around the spherical cavity in the strain‐softening M‐C and H‐B rock mass are presented. On the basis of the analysis of the spherical cavity in strain‐softening rock mass, the stress–strain relationship at an infinitesimal cube around the cavity is obtained and discussed with different evolution laws for the strength parameters considered. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.