Determination of uncertainties of geomechanical parameters of metamorphic rocks using petrographic analyses

Geomechanical parameters of intact metamorphic rocks determined from laboratory testing remain highly uncertain because of the great intrinsic variability associated with the degrees of metamorphism.The aim of this paper is to develop a proper methodology to analyze the uncertainties of geomechanical characteristics by focusing on three domains,i.e.data treatment process,schistosity angle,and mineralogy.First,the variabilities of the geomechanical laboratory data of Westwood Mine(Quebec,Canada)were examined statistically by applying different data treatment techniques,through which the most suitable outlier methods were selected for each parameter using multiple decision-making criteria and engineering judgment.Results indicated that some methods exhibited better performance in identifying the possible outliers,although several others were unsuccessful because of their limitation in large sample size.The well-known boxplot method might not be the best outlier method for most geomechanical parameters because its calculated confidence range was not acceptable according to engineering judgment.However,several approaches,including adjusted boxplot,2MADe,and 2SD,worked very well in the detection of true outliers.Also,the statistical tests indicate that the best-fitting probability distribution function for geomechanical intact parameters might not be the normal distribution,unlike what is assumed in most geomechanical studies.Moreover,the negative effects of schistosity angle on the uniaxial compressive strength(UCS)variabilities were reduced by excluding the samples within a specific angle range where the UCS data present the highest variation.Finally,a petrographic analysis was conducted to assess the associated uncertainties such that a logical link was found between the dispersion and the variabilities of hard and soft minerals.

Determination of rock mass integrity coefficient using a non-invasive geophysical approach

Determination of rock mechanical parameters is the most important step in rock mass quality evaluation and has significant impacts on geotechnical engineering practice.Rock mass integrity coefficient(KV)is one of the most efficient parameters,which is conventionally determined from boreholes.Such approaches,however,are time-consuming and expensive,offer low data coverage of point measurements,require heavy equipment,and are hardly conducted in steep topographic sites.Hence,borehole approaches cannot assess the subsurface thoroughly for rock mass quality evaluation.Alternatively,use of geophysical methods is non-invasive,rapid and economical.The proposed geophysical approach makes useful empirical correlation between geophysical and geotechnical parameters.We evaluated the rock mass quality via integration between KV measured from the limited boreholes and inverted resistivity obtained from electrical resistivity tomography(ERT).The borehole-ERT correlation provided KV along various geophysical profiles for more detailed 2D/3D(two-/three-dimensional)mapping of rock mass quality.The subsurface was thoroughly evaluated for rock masses with different engineering qualities,including highly weathered rock,semi-weathered rock,and fresh rock.Furthermore,ERT was integrated with induced polarization(IP)to resolve the uncertainty caused by water/clay content.Our results show that the proposed method,compared with the conventional approaches,can reduce the ambiguities caused by inadequate data,and give more accurate insights into the subsurface for rock mass quality evaluation.

Influence of wettability of shaly sandstone on rock electricity parameters

It has been found that the existence of chlorite and illite will lead to the rock wettability of oil affinity.Chlorite and illite are developed in shaly sandstone of Yingcheng Formation in Longfengshan area,the saturation index n of 7 rock samples is very high,with the highest of 14.57,whereas the cementation index m is low.The X-ray diffraction of clay and whole rock analysis of 7 shaly sandstone samples are carried out,and the relationship between chlorite and illite content vs.m and n is established.It is concluded that the low m value and high n value are caused by the wettability of rock.In order to verify the influence of wettability on the parameters of rock electricity,this paper discusses the method of making artificial shaly sandstone and the control of wettability.This study provides certain reference for determining the saturation model of shaly sandstone and improving the logging interpretation accuracy of shaly sandstone reservoirs.

Parameters of new three-water model based on nuclear magnetic experiment and optimization algorithm

Clastic rock reservoir is the main reservoir type in the oil and gas field.Archie formula or various conductive models developed on the basis of Archie’s formula are usually used to interpret this kind of reservoir,and the three-water model is widely used as well.However,there are many parameters in the threewater model,and some of them are difficult to determine.Most of the determination methods are based on the statistics of large amount of experimental data.In this study,the authors determine the value of the parameters of the new three-water model based on the nuclear magnetic data and the genetic optimization algorithm.The relative error between the resistivity calculated based on these parameters and the resistivity measured experimentally at 100%water content is 0.9024.The method studied in this paper can be easily applied without much experimental data.It can provide reference for other regions to determine the parameters of the new three-water model.

A simplified approach to directly consider intact rock anisotropy in Hoek——Brown failure criterion

Many rock types have naturally occurring inherent anisotropic planes, such as bedding planes, foliation,or flow structures. Such characteristic induces directional features and anisotropy in rocks＇ strength anddeformational properties. The HoekeBrown （HeB） failure criterion is an empirical strength criterionwidely applied to rock mechanics and engineering. A direct modification to HeB failure criterion toaccount for rock anisotropy is considered as the base of the research. Such modification introduced a newdefinition of the anisotropy as direct parameter named the anisotropic parameter （Kb）. However, thecomputation of this parameter takes much experimental work and cannot be calculated in a simple way.The aim of this paper is to study the trend of the relation between the degree of anisotropy （Rc） and theminimum value of anisotropic parameter （Kmin）, and to predict the Kmin directly from the uniaxialcompression tests instead of triaxial tests, and also to decrease the amount of experimental work. 2014 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting byElsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DEM investigation of weathered rocks using a novel bond contact model

The distinct element method（DEM） incorporated with a novel bond contact model was applied in this paper to shed light on the microscopic physical origin of macroscopic behaviors of weathered rock, and to achieve the changing laws of microscopic parameters from observed decaying properties of rocks during weathering. The changing laws of macroscopic mechanical properties of typical rocks were summarized based on the existing research achievements. Parametric simulations were then conducted to analyze the relationships between macroscopic and microscopic parameters, and to derive the changing laws of microscopic parameters for the DEM model. Equipped with the microscopic weathering laws, a series of DEM simulations of basic laboratory tests on weathered rock samples was performed in comparison with analytical solutions. The results reveal that the relationships between macroscopic and microscopic parameters of rocks against the weathering period can be successfully attained by parametric simulations. In addition, weathering has a significant impact on both stressestrain relationship and failure pattern of rocks.

Mechanical Properties of Soil-Rock Mixture Filling in Fault Zone Based on Mesostructure

Soil-rock mixture(SRM)filling in fault zone is an inhomogeneous geomaterial,which is composed of soil and rock block.It controls the deformation and stability of the abutment and dam foundation,and threatens the long-term safety of high arch dams.To study the macroscopic and mesoscopic mechanical properties of SRM,the development of a viable mesoscopic numerical simulation method with a mesoscopic model generation technology,and a reasonable parametric model is crucially desired to overcome the limitations of experimental conditions,specimen dimensions,and experiment fund.To this end,this study presents a mesoscopic numerical method for simulating the mechanical behavior of SRM by proposing mesoscopic model generation technology based on its mesostructure features,and a rock parameter model considering size effect.The validity and rationality of the presented mesoscopic numerical method is experimentally verified by the triaxial compression tests with different rock block contents(RBC).The results indicate that the rock block can increase the strength of SRM,and it is proved that the random generation technique and the rock parameter model considering size effect are validated.Furthermore,there are multiple failure surfaces for inhomogeneous geomaterial of SRM,and the angle of the failure zone is no longer 45◦.The yielding zones of the specimen are more likely to occur in thin sections of soil matrix isolated by blocks with the failure path avoiding the rock block.The proposed numerical method is effective to investigate the meso-damage mechanism of SRM.

Characterization and analysis of coded excitation ultrasound parameters for rock properties

Coded excitation technology （CET） can effectively enhance the penetration and resolution of ultrasonic testing. To analyze the influence of rock properties on pulse compression performance （PCP） of coded excitation signals （CES）, a numerical simulation, and an ultrasonic experiment on different rock samples are performed; and the detection ability of several CESs are also investigated and compared. The results of experiments showed that the loss of the signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） of Barker coded signal with tapered linear frequency modulated carrier （BTLFM） is always less than Barker coded signal with sine carrier （BS）, while the resolution loss of BTLFM is lower than tapered linear frequency modulated signal （TLFM）. In sum, the results not only verifiy the effectiveness of CET, but also provide a basis for the parameter settings of coded signals used in rock ultrasonic testing.