Dynamic response and failure of rock in initial gradientstress field under stress wave loading

Once an opening is created in deep underground,the stresses surrounding the opening will be redistributed,inducing a gradient stress field.To understand how the ground rock in such a gradient stress field responses to dynamic stress loading,the gradient stress distribution at a circular opening was first analyzed and the propagation of 1D stress wave in rock mass under gradient stress field was theoretically derived.By using an implicit to explicit solution method in LS-DYNA code,the dynamic mechanical behaviors of rock in gradient stress field were numerically investigated.The results indicate that the damage is mainly produced at or near the free face,partly due to the straight action of compressive stress wave and the tensile stress wave generated at the free face.The range of the induced damage zone is narrowed under the conditions of higher gradient stress rate and lower dynamic stress amplitude.However,under lower gradient stress field and higher dynamic stress,the damage becomes severer and wider with discontinuous failure regions.