A numerical study on anisotropic strength of a rock containing fractures under uniaxial compression condition

Fractures in the form of micro cracks are commonly found in natural rocks. A rock behaves in a complex way due to fracture; in particular, the anisotropic strength of a rock material is significantly influenced by the presence of these fractures. Therefore, it is essential to understand the failure mechanism of a fractured rock. In this study, a fractured rock is formulated in terms of fabric tensor based on geometric and mechanical simplifications. In this way, position, density and shape of fractures can be determined by the fabric tensor so that rocks containing multi-fractures can successfully be modeled. Also an index to evaluate the degree of anisotropy of a fractured rock is proposed. Hence, anisotropic strength of a rock containing fractures under uniaxial compression condition is estimated through a series of numerical analyses for the multi-fractured model. Numerical investigations are carried out by varying the fracture angle from $0^{\circ}\;to\;90^{\circ}$ and relationship between uniaxial compression strength and the degree of anisotropy is investigated. By comparing anisotropic strength of numerical analysis with analytic solution, this study attempts to understand the failure mechanism of rock containing fractures.