Fracturing behavior of a model of jointed rock containing an opening under biaxial compression

초록

The features of fracturing in a jointed rock mass around an opening were investigated using biaxial compression tests on physical models and by carrying out a series of numerical simulations using Particle Flow Code (PFC). The effect of joint dip angles of 30o, 45o, and 60o were considered. The results indicate that the presence of joint sets and their orientations influences the stress distributions and the mode of failure. Tensile crack dominant failure was observed in the physical tests. The propagation of the tensile cracks was observed to be normal to the joint plane and to produce wedges around the opening. The orientation of the joints was shown to influence the stress at which cracks were initiated and the extent of damage zone around the opening. When the joint angle is low, the damage zone is wider than it is when the angle is higher. This observation was reproduced using PFC simulations.