• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2017

The factor of safety (FOS) is commonly used as an index to quantitatively state the degree of safety of various rock structures. Therefore it is important to understand the definition and characteristics of the adopted FOS because the calculated FOS may be different according to the definition of FOS even if it is estimated under the same stress condition. In this study, four local factors of safety based on maximum shear stress, maximum shear strength, stress invariants, and maximum principal stress were defined using the Mohr-Coulomb and Hoek-Brown failure criteria. Then, the variation characteristics of each FOS along five stress paths were investigated. It is shown that the local FOS based on the shear strength, which is widely used in the stability analysis of rock structures, results in a higher FOS value than those based on the maximum principal stress and the stress invariants. This result implies that the local FOS based on the maximum shear stress or the stress invariants is more necessary than the local FOS based on the shear strength when the conservative rock mechanics design is required. In addition, it is shown that the maximum principal stresses at failure may reveal a large difference depending on the stress path.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.619-629
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• 2015

Influenced by various mining activities, fractures in rock masses have different densities, set numbers and lengths, which induce different mechanical properties and failure modes of rock masses. Therefore, precisely expressing the failure criterion of the fractured rock influenced by coal mining is significant for the support design, safety assessment and disaster prevention of underground mining engineering subjected to multiple mining activities. By adopting PFC2D particle flow simulation software, this study investigated the propagation and fractal evolution laws of the micro cracks occurring in two typical kinds of rocks under uniaxial compressive condition. Furthermore, it calculated compressive strengths of the rocks with different confining pressures and box-counting dimensions. Moreover, the quantitative relation between the box-counting dimension of the rocks and the empirical parameters m and s in Hoek-Brown strength criterion was established. Results showed that with the increase of the strain, the box-counting dimension of the rocks first increased slowly at the beginning and then exhibited an exponential increase approximately. In the case of small strains of same value, the box-counting dimensions of hard rocks were smaller than those of weak rocks, while the former increased rapidly and were larger than the latter under large strain. The results also presented that there was a negative correlation between the parameters m and s in Hoek-Brown strength criterion and the box-counting dimension of the rocks suffering from variable mining activities. In other words, as the box-counting dimensions increased, the parameters m and s decreased linearly, and their relationship could be described using first order polynomial function.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.713-720
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• 2000

The directional response of strength and deformation on the rocks acting by external loads is called by strength and deformability anisotropy, respectively. Peak strength and its failure criteria of anisotro rocks have been studied and reported. Many authors have investigated in detail the behavior of triaxial peak strength of anisotropic rocks(Jaeger 1960, McLamore & Gray 1967, Hoek & Brown 1980, Ramamurthy & Rao 1985). They concluded that the triaxial strength of anisotropic rocks varies according to the inclination of discontinuity in specimens. And, the minimun triaxial strength occurs in the specmen with 60° of inclination angle ; and specimens with 0° or 90° inclination have maximum triaxial strength. Based on the experimental result, the behavior triaxial strength is investigated. The triaxial compression tests due to the angle bedding plane have been conducted and the material constants, 'm' and 's', cohesion and angle of friction and nonlinear strength parameters to fit for the failure criterion were derived from the regression analysis. And, the experimental date are employed to examine three existing failure criteria for peak strength, provided by Jaeger, McLamore and Hoek & Brown and Ramamurthy & Rao. For a shale, the suitability of the failure criteiria of triaxial peak strength for anisotropic rocks is discussed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.907-928
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• 2017

The effects of seepage force and out-of-plane stress on cavity contracting and tunnel opening was investigated in this study. The generalized Hoek-Brown (H-B) failure criterion and non-associated flow rule were adopted. Because of the complex solution of pore pressure in an arbitrary direction, only the pore pressure through the radial direction was assumed in this paper. In order to investigate the effect of out-of-plane stress and seepage force on the cavity contraction and circular tunnel opening, three cases of the out-of-plane stress being the minor, intermediate, or major principal stress are assumed separately. A method of plane strain problem is adopted to obtain the stress and strain for cavity contracting and circular tunnel opening for three cases, respectively, that incorporated the effects of seepage force. The proposed solutions were validated by the published results and the correction is verified. Several cases were analyzed, and parameter studies were conducted to highlight the effects of seepage force, H-B constants, and out-of-plane stress on stress, displacement, and plastic radius with the numerical method. The proposed method may be used to address the complex problems of cavity contraction and tunnel opening in rock mass.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1C
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• pp.25-31
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• 2006

It is common to use the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of intact rock to estimate the shaft resistance of rock socketed drilled shaft. Therefore the most design manuals give a guide to use the UCS of rock core to estimate the shaft resistance of rock-socketed drilled shaft. Recently, however the design manuals for highway bridge (KSCE, 2001) and of AASHTO (2000) were revised to use the UCS of rock mass with RQD instead of the UCS of rock core so that the estimated resistance could be representative of field conditions. Questions have been raised in application of the new guide to the domestic main bed rock types. The intrinsic drawbacks in terms of RQD were comprised in the questions, too. As the results, in 2002 the new guide in the design manual for highway bridge (KSCE, 2001) were again revised to use the UCS of rock core to estimate the shaft resistance of rock-socketed drilled shafts. In this paper, various methods which can estimate the UCS of rock mass from intact rock core were reviewed. It seems that among those, the Hoek-Brown method is very reliable and practical for the estimation of the UCS of rock mass from rock cores. As the results, using the Hoek-Brown failure criterion a modified guide for the estimation of the shaft resistance of rock-socketed drilled shafts was suggested in this paper. Through a case study it is shown that the suggested method gives a good agreement with the measured data.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.13-21
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• 2019

There are many cuts or natural rock slopes that remain stable for a long time in the natural environment with steep slopes ($65^{\circ}$ to $85^{\circ}$). In terms of design practice, the rock mass consisting of similar rock condition and geological structures is defined as a good continuum rock slope, and during the process of decision making angle of this rock slope, it will be important to establish the geotechnical properties estimating method of the continuum rock on the process of stability analysis in the early stages of design and construction. In this study, the stability analysis of a good continuum rock slope that can be designed as a steep slope proposed a practical method of estimating the shear strength by induced from the Hoek-Brown failure criterion, and in addition, the design applicability was evaluated through the stability analysis of steep rock slope. The existing method of estimating the shear strength was inadequate for practical use in the design, as the equivalent M-C shear strength corresponding to the H-B envelope changes sensitively, even with small variations in confining stress. To compensate for this problem, it was proposed to estimate equivalent M-C shear strength by iso-angle division method. To verify the design applicability of the iso-angle division method, the results of the safety factor and the displacement according to the change in angle of the cut slope constructed at the existing working design site were reviewed. The safety factor is FS=16~59 on the 1:0.5 slope, FS=12~52 on the 1:0.3 slope, most of which show a 10~12 percent reduction. Displacement is 0.126 to 0.975 mm on the 1:0.5 slope, 0.152 to 1.158 mm on the 1:0.3 slope, and represents an increase of 10 to 15%. This is a slightly change in normal proportion and is in good condition in terms of stability. In terms practical the working design, it was confirmed that applying the shear strength estimated by Iso-angle division method derived from the H-B failure criterion as a universal shear strength for a good continuum rock mass slope was also able to produce stable and economic results. The procedure for stability analysis using LEM (Limit Equilibrium Analysis Method) and FEM (Finite Element Analysis Method) will also be practical in the rock slope where is not distributed fault. The study was conducted by selecting the slope of study area as a good rock condition, establishing a verification for which it can be applied universal to a various rock conditions will be a research subject later on.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.323-339
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• 2024

If the pressure exerted on the face of a tunnel excavated by TBM exceeds a threshold, it leads to failure of the soil or rock masses ahead of the tunnel face, which results in heaving the ground surface. In the current research, the upper bound method of limit analysis was employed to calculate the blow-out pressure of tunnels excavated in rock masses obeying the Hoek-Brown nonlinear criterion. The results of the proposed method were compared with three-dimensional finite element models, as well as the available methods in the literature. The results show that when σ_ci, m_i, and GSI increase, the blow-out pressure increases as well. By doubling the tunnel diameter, the blow-out pressure reduces up to 54.6%. Also, by doubling the height of the tunnel cover and the surcharge pressure exerted on the ground surface above the tunnel, the blow-out pressure increased up to 74.9% and 5.4%, respectively. With 35% increase in the unit weight of the rock mass surrounding the tunnel, the blow-out pressure increases in the range of 14.8% to 19.6%. The results of the present study were provided in simple design graphs that can easily be used in practical applications in order to obtain the blow-out pressure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.281-293
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• 2021

Uncertainties in geomechanical input parameters which mainly related to inappropriate data acquisition and estimation due to lack of sufficient calibration information, have led wellbore instability not yet to be fully understood or addressed. This paper demonstrates a workflow of employing Quantitative Risk Assessment technique, considering these uncertainties in terms of rock properties, pore pressure and in-situ stresses to makes it possible to survey not just the likelihood of accomplishing a desired level of wellbore stability at a specific mud pressure, but also the influence of the uncertainty in each input parameter on the wellbore stability. This probabilistic methodology in conjunction with Monte Carlo numerical modeling techniques was applied to a case study of a well. The response surfaces analysis provides a measure of the effects of uncertainties in each input parameter on the predicted mud pressure from three widely used failure criteria, thereby provides a key measurement for data acquisition in the future wells to reduce the uncertainty. The results pointed out that the mud pressure is tremendously sensitive to UCS and SHmax which emphasize the significance of reliable determinations of these two parameters for safe drilling. On the other hand, the predicted safe mud window from Mogi-Coulomb is the widest while the Hoek-Brown is the narrowest and comparing the anticipated collapse failures from the failure criteria and breakouts observations from caliper data, indicates that Hoek-Brown overestimate the minimum mud weight to avoid breakouts while Mogi-Coulomb criterion give better forecast according to real observations.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.221-229
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• 1999

Parameters of failure criteria, compressive strength and elastic modulus are most important for design and stability analysis of rock structure using numerical analysis. In this study, it suggests that the application of input data for numerical analysis by the literature study and the result of the 150 sets of triaxial compressive test. There was much different between parameters of failure criterion suggested by Hoek-Brown and parameters resulted from the analysis using 150 sets of triaxial compressive test. But the converting equations of compressive strength have had an interrelation with RMR. However, the converting of elastic of elastic modulus were different as chosen of equation, and the equation by Nicholson et at was more useful than others.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.49-68
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• 2023

The three-dimensional failure criterion is essential for maintaining wellbore stability and sand production problem. The convenient factor for a stable wellbore is mud weight and borehole orientation, i.e., mud window design and selection of borehole trajectory. This study proposes a new three-dimensional failure criterion with linear relation of three in-situ principal stresses. The number of failure criteria executed to understand the phenomenon of rock failure under in-situ stresses is the Mohr-Coulomb criterion, Hoek-Brown criterion, Mogi-Coulomb criterion, and many more. A new failure criterion is the extended Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion with the influence of intermediate principal stress (σ₂). The influence of intermediate principal stress is considered as a weighting of (σ₂) on the mean effective stress. The triaxial compression test data for eleven rock types are taken from the literature for calibration of material constant and validation of failure prediction. The predictions on rock samples using new criteria are the best fit with the triaxial compression test data points. Here, Drucker-Prager and the Mogi-Coulomb criterion are also implemented to predict the failure for eleven different rock types. It has been observed that the Drucker-Prager criterion gave over prediction of rock failure. On the contrary, the Mogi-Coulomb criterion gave an equally good prediction of rock failure as our proposed new 3D failure criterion. Based on the yield surface of a new 3D linear criterion it gave the safest prediction for the failure of the rock. A new linear failure criterion is recommended for the unique solution as a linear relation of the principal stresses rather than the dual solution by the Mogi-Coulomb criterion.