This paper presents a new method—the Technique of Iterative Local Thresholding (TILT)—for processing 3D X-ray computed tomography (xCT) images for visualization and quantification of rock fractures. The TILT method includes the following advancements. First, custom masks are generated by a fracture-dilation procedure, which significantly amplifies the fracture signal on the intensity histogram ...

Abstract Rock–shotcrete structures are often suffered from dynamic shearing. However, the understanding of shear response rock–shotcrete is still at its infancy. To investigate effects strain rate and interface roughness on structure, laboratory tests were carried out modified double notched sandstone–concrete specimen. Testing results show that strength peak specimens both far less than those ...

Heat exchange during laminar flow is studied at the fracture scale on the basis of the Stokes equation. We used a synthetic aperture model (a self-affine model) that has been shown to be a realistic geometrical description of the fracture morphology. We developed a numerical modelling using a finite difference scheme of the hydrodynamic flow and its coupling with an advection/conduction descrip...

In this paper, the hydraulic and heat-transfer properties of two sets of artificially fractured granite samples are investigated. First, the morphological information is determined using 3D modelling technology. The area ratio is used to describe the roughness of the fracture surface. Second, the hydraulic properties of fractured granite are tested by exposing samples to different confining pre...

Three-dimensional surface geometry of rock discontinuities and its evolution with shearing are of great importance in understanding the deformability and hydro-mechanical behavior of rock masses. In the present research, surfaces of three natural rock fractures were digitized and studied before and after the direct shear test. The variography analysis of the surfaces indicated a strong non-line...

The explosion process of explosives in a borehole applies a very high pressure on its surrounding rock media. This process can initiate and propagate rock fractures, and finally, may result in the rock fragmentation. Rock fragmentation is mainly caused by the propagation of inherent pre-existing fractures of the rock mass and also from the extension of the newly formed cracks within the intact ...

assessment of the correlation between rock brittleness and rock fracture toughness has been the subject of extensive research works in the recent years. unfortunately, the brittleness measurement methods have not yet been standardized, and rock fracture toughness cannot be estimated satisfactorily by the proposed indices. in the present study, statistical analyses are performed on some data col...