Non-complete relief method for measuring surface stresses in surrounding rocks

The measurement of surface stresses in surrounding rocks with the use of a relief method of annular hole-drilling was studied by numerical analysis. The stress relief process by hole-drilling was then simulated with the use of finite element method. The influences of the borehole diameter(d), the initial stresses and the ratio of the initial principle stresses on the variations of the remained stress and the released stress in function of the relief depth(h) were discussed. The relation between the non-dimensional ratio of the released principle strains and that of the initial principle stresses, and the effect of the elastic modulus and the Poisson ratio of the rock mass on the stress relief curves were studied. The results show that the stress relief behavior formulated with the non-dimensional ratio of the released stress and the ratio of h/d is only sensitive to the ratio of the initial principle stresses and the Poisson ratio. The stresses are completely released when h equals 1.6d, and the tensile stresses take place on the bore core surface in the relief measurement process. Finally, a non-complete relief method of annular hole-drilling for measuring surface stress in surrounding rocks is proposed and the procedure is presented.

TECHNOLOGY OF QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS ON VIBRATORY STRESS RELIEF BASED ON ULTRASONIC TIME-OF-ARRIVAL METHOD

The effect of vibratory stress relief （VSR） is usually evaluated with the indirect method of observing the change of amplitude frequency response characteristics of structures. A new kind of evaluating method of VSR based on the ultrasonic time-of-arrival method （UTM）, which can obtain the residual stress directly through measuring the propagation time of ultrasonic wave in the material, is presented. At first, the principle of the measuring method of residual stress based on UTM is analyzed. Then the measuring system of the method is described, which is in virtue of ultrasonic flaw detector and high-sampling-rate digital oscillograph. And a set of calibration system that contains a piece of standard specimen is also introduced. Experimental results prove the relation between the residual stress and the propagation time of ultrasonic in workpieces. Finally, the measuring and calibration systems are applied in evaluating the effect of VSR. The final test results show that the method is effective.

Principle of in-situ 3D rock stress measurement with borehole wall stress relief method and its preliminary applications to determination of in-situ rock stress orientation and magnitude in Jinping hydropower station

As a main constituent of geological body, the rock masses have distinct differences from other materials, one of which is that rock masses are initially stressed in their natural states. Hence, it is an extremely challenging and significant research project to know the present residual stress of the rock masses in the earth's crust. Although some regularities of distribution of in-situ rock stresses can be deduced, the basic means to study the state of rock stress is in-situ stress measurement. After a brief review of several measuring methods of in-situ 3D rock stress, a new one, borehole wall stress relief method (BWSRM) to determine the in-situ 3D rock stress tensor in a single drilled borehole was proposed. Based on the principle of in-situ rock stress measurement with BWSRM, an original geostress measuring instrument was designed and manufactured. Preliminary experiments for determination of in-situ stress orientation and magnitude were carried out at an experimental tunnel in Jinping Ⅱ hydropower station in China, where the buried depth of overburden was about 2430 m. The results showed that it was feasible to measure the in-situ 3D rock stresses with BWSRM presented in this paper. The BWSRM has a broad prospect for in-situ 3D rock stress measurements in practical rock engineering.