Sliding modes of fault activation under constant normal stiffness conditions

Fault activation has been the focus of research community for years.However,the studies of fault activation remain immature,such as the fault activation mode and its major factors under constant normal stiffness(CNS)conditions associated with large thickness of fault surrounding rock mass.In this study,the rock friction experiments were conducted to understand the fault activation modes under the CNS conditions.Two major parameters,i.e.the initial normal stress and loading rate,were considered and calibrated in the tests.To reveal the response mechanism of fault activation,the local strains near the fault plane were recorded,and the macroscopic stresses and displacements were analyzed.The testing results show that the effect of displacement-controlled loading rate is more pronounced under the CNS conditions than that under constant normal load(CNL)conditions.Both the normal and shear stresses drop suddenly when the stick-slip occurs.The decrease and increase of the normal stress are synchronous with the shear stress in the regular stick-slip scenario,but mismatch with the shear stress during the chaotic stick-slip process.The results are helpful for understanding the fault sliding mode and the prediction and prevention of fault slip.

A comparative study for determining rock joint normal stiffness with destructive uniaxial compression and nondestructive ultrasonic wave testing

Rock joints are one of the vital discontinuities in a natural rock mass.How to accurately and conveniently determine joint normal stiffness is therefore significant in rock mechanics.Here,first,seven existing methods for determining joint normal stiffness were introduced and reviewed,among which MethodⅠ(the indirect measurement method),MethodⅡ(the direct determination method),MethodⅢ(the across-joint strain gauge measurement method)and MethodⅣ(the deformation measuring ring method)are via destructive uniaxial compression testing,while MethodⅤ(the best fitting method),MethodⅥ(the rapid evaluation method)and MethodⅦ(the effective modulus method)are through wave propagation principles and nondestructive ultrasonic testing.Subsequently,laboratory tests of intact and jointed sandstone specimens were conducted following the testing requirements and pro-cedures of those seven methods.A comparison among those methods was then performed.The results show that Method I,i.e.the benchmark method,is reliable and stable.MethodⅡhas a conceptual drawback,and its accuracy is acceptable at only very low stress levels.Relative errors in the results from MethodⅢare very large.With MethodⅣ,the testing results are sufficiently accurate despite the strict testing environment and complicated testing procedures.The results from MethodⅤare greatly unstable and significantly dependent on the natural frequency of the transducers.The joint normal stiffness determined with MethodⅥis stable and accurate,although data processing is complex.MethodⅦcould be adopted to determine the joint normal stiffness corresponding to the rock elastic deformation phase only.Consequently,it is suggested that MethodsⅠ,ⅣandⅥshould be adopted for the mea-surement of joint normal stiffness.The findings could be helpful in selecting an appropriate method to determine joint normal stiffness and,hence,to better solve discontinuous rock mass problems.

Laboratory investigation into effect of bolt profiles on shear behaviors of bolt-grout interface under constant normal stiffness (CNS) conditions

Rock bolts have been widely used for stabilizing rock mass in geotechnical engineering.It is acknowledged that the bolt profiles have a sound influence on the support effect of the rock bolting system.Previous studies have proposed some optimal rib parameters(e.g.rib spacing);unfortunately,the interface shear behaviors are generally ignored.Therefore,determination of radial stress and radial displacement on the bolt-grout interface using traditional pull-out tests is not possible.The load-bearing capacity and deformation capacity vary as bolt profiles differ,suggesting that the support effect of the bolting system can be enhanced by optimizing bolt profiles.The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of bolt profiles(with/without ribs,rib spacing,and rib height)on the shear behaviors between the rock bolt and grout material using direct shear tests.Thereby,systematic interfacial shear tests with different bolt profiles were performed under both constant normal load(CNL)and constant normal stiffness(CNS)boundary conditions.The results suggested that rib spacing has a more marked influence on the interface shear behavior than rib height does,in particular at the post-yield stage.The results could facilitate our understanding of bolt-grout interface shear behavior under CNS conditions,and optimize selection of rock bolts under in situ rock conditions.

Shear behaviour of anchored jointed rock mass under different engineering conditions considering damage and joint surface morphology

According to different geological conditions and engineering disturbance,three dimensional numerical models of anchored jointed rock mass with two kinds of boundary conditions of constant normal load(CNL)and constant normal stiffness(CNS)were constructed considering the ductility damage of rockbolt,the stiffness degradation of grouting layer and the joint surface roughness.The effects of anchorage angle,joint surface morphology,and boundary conditions on the shear performance of anchorage system were analyzed,and the failure characteristics under different working conditions were revealed.Finally,the analytical solution of shear strength of anchored system was established.Results show that the larger the anchorage angle is,the more serious the necking phenomenon of rockbolt will be.The damage degree of the bonding layer and the horizontal displacement of the bedding rock mass decrease with the increase of the joint surface roughness.The CNL condition is to instantaneously apply high normal stress,and the CNS condition is to gradually form a high normal stress environment through the superposition of increment on the basis of the initial value,which can resist greater transverse load.This is equivalent to enhancing the ductility of the rockbolt.The shear strength of the system increases with the increase of normal stress and normal stiffness.Ignoring the normal stiffness will underestimate the shear strength.

A semi-analytical approach to the elastic loading behaviour of rough surfaces

The elastic loading behaviour of rough surfaces is derived based on the physical understanding of the contact phenomena, where the pressure distribution is analytically obtained without any negative values or convergence problems, thus the evolution of the contact behaviour is obtained in a semi-analytical manner. Numerical results obtained by the proposed approach facilitate the understanding of the contact behaviour in the following aspects: 1) the ratio of contact area to load decreases with an increase in real contact area;2) normal approach-load relationship is approximated by an exponential decay under relatively small loads and a linear decay under relatively large loads;and 3) average gap shows an exponential relationship with load only in moderate load range.