numerical evaluation of non-homogeneity and anisotropy due to joints in rock media

an important concern in rock mechanics is non-homogeneity as joints or fault. adopting the joints as fractures, fractures are well known for their effects on the mechanical and transport properties of rock. it has been postulated that through fractured/jointed rock, mainly, the polygons turned to the shear vector (ti) are involved in the mobilization of shear resistance. consequently, in order to locate the contact areas implicated into the shear-test it was firstly necessary to fix the shear direction. moreover, since laboratory observations clearly show that only the steepest polygon surfaces touch the other sample, the identification of the potential sliding areas only requires the determination of the polygons which are faced to the shear direction and which, among them, are steep enough to be involved. the methodology to be discussed here is modeling of slip on the local and global levels due to the distribution of deformation procedure of the rock joint. upon the presented methodology, more attention has been given to slip initiation and propagation through rock joint. in particular, softening in non-linear behaviour of joint in going from the peak to residual strengths imparts a behaviour often associated with progressive failure. a multi-plane based model is developed and used to compute plastic strain distribution and failure mechanism of rock joints. validity of the presented model was examined by comparing numerical and test results showing the behavior of both homogeneous and jointed rock samples under general stress conditions.