Under stress, the microcracks in rock evolve (initiation, growth and coalescence) from damage to fracture with a continuous process. In order to describe this continuous process, a damage-softening statistical constitutive model for rock was proposed based on the Weibull distribution of mesoscopic element strength. This model usually adopts the Drucker–Prager criterion as its distribution param...

Nine rock types including Sandstone, Limestone, Siltstone, Dolomite and Marl collected from six different rock formations of the Salt Range area of Pakistan were tested to evaluate the correlations between the uniaxial compressive strength and the corresponding values of the point load index. Two hundred rock cores were drilled and used for the uniaxial compressive strength and point load index...

Rock abrasivity, as one of the most important parameters affecting the rock drillability, significantly influences the drilling rate in mines. Therefore, rock abrasivity should be carefully evaluated prior to selecting and employing drilling machines. Since the tests for a rock abrasivity assessment require sophisticated laboratory equipment, empirical models can be used to predict rock a...

Since rock fracture is a key property for different rock engineering applications, rock fracture measurement is often carried out in classifying the rock mass. Most geo-mechanics models (e.g. finite element) are of the equivalent continuum type in which fractures are represented not individually, but by their influence on a large element of the rock mass. Elastic modulus, for example, is obtain...

one of the most important parameters used for determining the performance of tunnel boring machines (tbms) is their penetration rate. the parameters affecting the penetration rate can be divided in two categories. the first category is the controllable parameters such as the tbm technical characteristics, and type and geometry of the tunnel, and the second one is the uncontrollable parameters s...

Natural rock joints infilled with soil materials may show a reduced shear strength, which influences rock mass stability. The aim of this paper is to experimentally investigate the shear behaviour of infilled rock joints, taking into account joint surface characteristics and the properties of the joint and infill materials. A new model for predicting the shear strength of infilled joints is pre...

The mechanical characteristics of rock salt have an important influence on the safety of the salt cavity. The acoustic emission (AE) technique was used to analyze the generation of microcracks in rock salt under uniaxial compression condition. By monitoring acoustic emission in whole process of stress strain curve under uniaxial compression test, the damage characteristic of rock salt is obtain...

The scale dependence of the strength of virtually homogeneous rock is usually considered to be insignificant but the spectrum of discontinuities plays a very important role for the strength of differently sized rock elements and also controls the rock creep strain. Large-scale load tests comprised recording of the creep strain rate that was found to be strongly retarded and negligible for stres...

Some of the geotechnical parameters used in the analysis may not be accurately measured directly from laboratory tests due to effects of sample disturbance and errors of tests. The back analysis or the observational method are thus often applied to determine the representative and/or dominant strength parameters based on field observations in practice. Based on the Hoek-Brown failure criterion,...