Characterization of Excavation Damaged Zone (EDZ) around an underground excavation is a major research topic for deep geological disposal of medium to high level radioactive waste. Rock fracturing due to excavation and thermal loading and its resultant rock mass permeability change in the EDZ are important aspects in the EDZ characterisation. A new function to predict rock mass permeability cha...

When examining a rock mass, joint sets and their orientations can play a signiŽ cant role with regard to how the rock mass will behave. To identify joint sets present in the rock mass, the orientation of individual fracture planes can be measured on exposed rock faces and the resulting data can be examined for heterogeneity. In this article, the expectation–maximization algorithm is used to Ž t...

Cyclic microfracturing and epitaxial crystal growth have long been recognized in crack-seal veins, but an understanding of a single cycle is still missing. Here we present phase-field model that includes both fracture mechanics crack propagation, on the walls, repeating this multiple times polycrystalline, microporous quartz rock. Our simulations two end members: If vein completely seals, it st...

Typical parallel fractures are often observed in the outcrops of inclusions field. To reveal failure mechanism embedded rock matrix, a series heterogeneous models established and tested based on damage mechanics, statistical strength theory, continuum mechanics. The results show that, with spacing between two adjacent decreasing, stress is firstly transferred from negative to positive, then pos...

modelling of crack propagation by finite element method under mixed mode conditions is of prime importance in fracture mechanics. this paper describes an application of finite element method to the analysis of mixed mode crack growth in linear elastic fracture mechanics. crack growth process is simulated by an incremental crack-extension analysis based on the maximum principal stress criterion,...

There are lots of cleats, fractures and many other structure weak planes in coal seams, which make the bullet holes and cleats intersecting. During the hydraulic fracturing process in coal seams, fractures will initiate at coal rock body of borehole wall, and cleats or fractures are different from conventional reservoirs. Thus a new model for initiation pressure calculation during coal seams fr...

a r t i c l e i n f o The purpose of this study is to analytically predict and to experimentally investigate the seismic response of adjacent filled parallel rock fractures with dissimilar properties (e.g., fracture thickness and stiffness). The time-domain recursive method is extended to predict that a P-wave propagates normally across the filled parallel fractures using the specific stiffness...

The assembly and mechanics of actomyosin stress fibers (SFs) depend on myosin regulatory light chain (RLC) phosphorylation, which is driven by myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) and Rho-associated kinase (ROCK). Although previous work suggests that MLCK and ROCK control distinct pools of cellular SFs, it remains unclear how these kinases differ in their regulation of RLC phosphorylation or how ph...

As a new modeling procedure of geothermal energy extraction systems, the authors present two dimensional and three dimensional modeling techniques of subsurface fracture network, based on fractal geometry. Fluid flow in fractured rock occurs primarily through a connected network of discrete fractures. The fracture network approach, therefore, seeks to model fluid flow and heat transfer through ...