• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.383-391
• /
• 2013

A number of true triaxial tests on rock samples have been conducted since the late 1960 and their results strongly suggest that the intermediate principal stress has a considerable effect on rock strength. Based on these experimental evidence, various 3-D rock failure criteria accounting for the effect of the intermediate principal stress have been proposed. Most of the 3-D failure criteria, however, are focused on the phenomenological description of the rock strength from the true triaxial tests, so that the associated strength parameters have little physical meaning. In order to confirm the likelihood that the intermediate principal stress dependency of rock strength is related to the presence of weak planes and their distribution to the preferred orientation, true triaxial tests are simulated with the transversely isotropic rock model. The conventional Mohr-Coulomb criterion is extended to its anisotropic version by incorporating the concept of microstructure tensor. With the anisotropic Mohr-Coulomb criterion, the critical plane approach is applied to calculate the strength of the transversely isotropic rock model and the orientation of the fracture plane. This investigation hints that the spatial distribution of microstructural planes with respect to the principal stress triad is closely related to the intermediate principal stress dependency of rock strength.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.12-21
• /
• 2012

Although the Mohr-Coulomb and Hoek-Brown failure criteria have been adopted widely in rock mechanics, they neglect the ${\sigma}_2$ effect. The result of true triaxial tests on rock samples, however, reveals that the ${\sigma}_2$ effect on strength of rocks is considerable, so that rock failure criteria taking into account the influence of ${\sigma}_2$ are necessary for the precise stability evaluation of rock structures. In this study, a new nonlinear 3-D failure criterion has been suggested by combining the Hoek-Brown criterion with the smooth octahedral shape function taken from Jiang & Pietruszczak (1988). The performance of the new criterion was assessed by comparing the strength predictions from both the suggested criterion and the corresponding linear 3-D criterion. The resulting fit of the new criterion to the true triaxial test data for six rock types taken from the literature shows that the criterion fits the experimental data very well. Furthermore, for the data sets having data taken in the low ${\sigma}_3$ range, the nonlinear failure criterion works better than the linear criterion.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.93-102
• /
• 2011

In spite of being unable to take into the effect of intermediate principal stress, Mohr-Coulomb and Hoek-Brown criteria are very popular as rock failure criteria. The recent researches reveal that the influence of intermediate principal stress on the failure strength of rock is substantial, so that 3-D failure criteria in which the intermediate principal stress could be considered is necessary for the safe design of the important rock structures. In this study, the likely application of the 3-D failure criterion proposed by Jiang & Pietruszczak (1988) to the prediction of the true triaxial strength of rock materials is discussed. The failure condition is linear in the meridian plane of principal stress space and it is represented by the smooth surface contacting the corners of the Mohr-Coulomb surface. The performance of the Jiang & Pietruszczak's criterion is demonstrated by simulating the actual true triaxial tests on the rock samples of three different rock types.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.99-107
• /
• 1988

A limited number of cubical triaxial tests with independent control of the three principal stresses were performed on an overconsolidated clay. The cubical undisturbed specimens with overconsolidation ratio of 5 were prepared in triaxial chamber after sampling in field. It was found that the intermediate principal stress influences on the stress-strain, undrained strength effective strength, effective friction angle and pore pressure of the overconsolidated clay. When the magnitude of the intermediate principal stress is not same as the minimum principal stress, the failure strength of the overconsolidated clay is underestimated by use of Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion while it can be estimated quite well by use of Lade failure criterion. And the undrained strength of the overconsolidated clay does not coincide with that obtained by Tresca failure criterion.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.219-227
• /
• 2013

Although Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion has limitations in that it is a linear criterion and the effect of the intermediate principal stress on failure is ignored, this criterion has been widely accepted in rock mechanics design. In order to overcome these shortcomings, the Hoek-Brown failure criterion was introduced and recently a number of 3-D failure criteria incorporating the effect of the intermediate principal stress on failure have been proposed. However, in many rock mechanics designs, the possible failure of rock mass is still evaluated based on Mohr-Coulomb criterion and most of practitioners are accustomed to understanding the strength of rock mass in terms of the internal friction angle and cohesion. Therefore, if the equivalent Mohr-Coulomb strength parameters of the advanced failure criteria are calculated, it is possible to take advantage of the advanced failure criteria in the framework of the Mohr-Coulomb criterion. In this study, a method expressing the tangential Mohr-Coulomb strength parameters in terms of the stress invariant is proposed and it is applied to the generalized Hoek-Brown criterion and the HB-WW criterion. In addition, a new approach describing the geometric meaning of the ${\sigma}_2$-dependency of failure criteria in 3-D principal stress space is proposed. Implementation examples of the proposed method show that the influence of the intermediate principal stress on the tangential friction angle and cohesion of the HB-WW criterion is considerable, which is not the case for the 2-D failure criterion.

• Geotechnical Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.5-16
• /
• 1996

Based on many experimental results on fine silica sands, the strength relation between triaxial and plane strain tests is expressed as a function of both density and mean effective principal stress at failure. Stress ratio of mean normal stress to deviatoric stress at failure is a well defined function of shear angle of friction, This ratio decreases with increasing shear angle of friction. Intermediate principal stress is also expressed in terms of major and minor principal stresses and a relatively good agreement between theoretical and observed angles of failure plane in plane strain test is confirmed.

• Geotechnical Engineering
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.83-92
• /
• 1993

A series of drained triaxial tests on sand was performed using the cubical triaxial appaiatus, in which three principal stress could be loaded independently. The test results indicated that the intermediate principal stress influenced on both stress strain behavior and strength of sand. The axial strain at failure decreased and volumetric strain increased with an increase of the intermediate stress under constant minor principal stress. The internal friction angle of sand increased in general with increase of the deviator stress ratio b(=(G.:-c, )1(G, -G, )) except slight decrease of the internal friction angle as b value approached to 1. Finally Lade's failure criterion presented good coincidence with the exper imental strengttL while Mohr Coulomb failure criterion underestimated the experimental strength.

• Geotechnical Engineering
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.65-76
• /
• 1990

A series of consolidated drained and untrained cubical triaxial tests were performed to investigate three dimensional strength characteristics of compressible sand. All specimens, which are formed by deposisting a fine sand loosely, were used. Failure strength in terms of effective stress analysis was greatly influenced by the variation of intermediate principal stress and so was failure criterion The adjusted effective frictional angles obtained by the stress state projected on the same octahedral plane showed almost same value, while the measured effective frictional angles showed considerable difference depending on the drainage conditions. Results of total stress analysis in undrained test turned out to fit Tresca's failure criterion well, but results of effective stress analysis turned out to fit Lade's failure criterion well.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.153-166
• /
• 1991

In an attempt to investigate the effect of intermedate principal stresses which are related to the stress-strain behavior of standard sands, a series of three-Principal stress control tests were conducted for individual stress paths. The results have shown that shear strengths of sands vary with the stress paths. The variations in internal friction angle are accorded with the Habibs stress parameter, b which represents Stress paths, showing on abropt increase at the values between 0.0 and 0.268, a moderate level between 0.268 and 0.682, and a slight decrease between 0.682 and 1.0 However, the friction angles under a triaxial extention state, were found relatively larger than under a triaxial compression state. In general, such veriations were found to have the same tendency without any relevant relation with the density of specimens and confining pressures. Therefore, it is concluded, that the shear strength of sands are positively influeced by the intermediate principal stresses present in the media. And the influnce of intermediate principal stresses on shear strengths of sands found from the present study are well compared with the previous studies by Lade-Duncan and Matsuoka-Nakai revealing a similar tendency within the failure criteria proposed by them.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.597-610
• /
• 2022

Knowledge of the failure behavior of friction materials considering their intermediate principal stress is related to an understanding of situations where these materials might be used: for example, the stability of deep-seated boreholes and fault slip analysis. This study designed equipment for physically implementing true triaxial compression and used it to assess specimens of plaster, a friction material. The material's mechanical behaviors are discussed based on the results. The applicability of the 3D failure criteria are also reviewed. The tested specimens were molded cuboids of width, length, and height 52, 52, and 104 mm, respectively. A total of 24 true triaxial compression tests were performed under various combinations of 𝜎₃ and 𝜎₂ conditions. Conventional uniaxial and triaxial compression tests were employed to estimate the mechanical properties of the plaster for use as parameters for 3D failure criteria. Examining the stress-strain relations of the plaster materials showed that a large difference between the intermediate principal stress and the minimum principal stress indicated strong brittle behavior. The mechanical behavior of the plaster used here reflects the change of intermediate principal stress. Nonlinear multiple regression analysis on the test data in the principal space showed that the modified Wiebols-Cook failure criterion and the modified Lade failure criterion were the most suitable 3D failure criteria for the tested plaster.