• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.15 no.3 s.56
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• pp.228-235
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• 2005

Friction angle and cohesion of rock masses can be estimated from Hoek and Brown failure criterion and then plastic corrections can be applied using Mohr-Coulomb yield function. This study finds that this estimation procedure would not be appropriate for weak rock masses and for cases where low confining stress is expected to develop. A procedure is outlined in this paper for estimating plastic corrections directly from Hoek and Brown material model. Comparative study shows that direct procedure would simulate non-linear failure surface better than indirect procedure especially in the low confining stress regime.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.434-443
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• 2009

Slope stability analysis is an essential part of rock slope design. For highly fractured rock, the limit equilibrium method (LEM) based slope stability analysis with a circular failure surface is often carried out assuming the rock mass behaves more or less as a continuum. This paper examines first, the applicability of the finite-element method (FEM) based shear strength reduction (SSR) technique for highly fractured rock slope, and second the use of Mohr-Coulomb (MC) failure criterion in conjunction with generalized Hoek-Brown (HB) failure criterion. The numerical results on a number of cases are compared in terms of the factor of safety (FS). The results indicated that the FEM-based SSR technique yields almost the same FSs from LEM, and that the MC and HB failure criteria yield almost identical FSs when the strength parameters for MC failure criterion are obtained based on the modified HB failure criterion if and only if value of the Hoek-Brown constant $m_i$ is smaller than 10 and slope angle is smaller than 1:1, otherwise MC failure criteria over-estimate the factor of safety.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.585-600
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• 2017

This study deals with simple solutions for a spherical or circular opening excavated in elastic-brittle plastic rock mass compatible with a linear Mohr-Coulomb (M-C) or a nonlinear Hoek-Brown (H-B) yield criterion. Based on total strain approach, the closed-form solutions of stresses and displacement are derived simultaneously for circular and spherical openings using original H-B and M-C yield criteria. Two simple numerical procedures are proposed for the solution of generalized H-B and M-C yield criteria. Based on incremental approach, the similarity solution is derived for circular and spherical openings using generalized H-B and M-C yield criteria. The classical Runge-Kutta method is used to integrate the first-order ordinary differential equations. Using three data sets for M-C and H-B models, the results of the radial displacements, the spreading of the plastic radius with decreasing pressure, and the radial and circumferential stresses in the plastic region are compared. Excellent agreement among the solutions is obtained for all cases of spherical and circular openings. The importance of the use of proper initial values in the similarity solution is discussed.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.59-71
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• 2018

Since the generalized Hoek-Brown (GHB) function predicts the strength of the jointed rock mass in a systematic manner by use of GSI index, it is widely used in rock engineering practices. In this study, a series of 2D elasto-plastic FE analysis, which adopts the GHB criterion as a yield function, was carried out to investigate the radial convergence characteristics of circular tunnel excavated in the GHB rock mass. The effect of the plastic potential function on the elasto-plastic displacement was also examined. In the analysis, the wide range of both the $K(={\sigma}_h/{\sigma}_v)$ and GSI values are considered. For each K value, the variation of the ratio of sidewall displacement to roof displacement was calculated with varying GSI values and the obtained displacement patterns were analysed. The calculation results show that the displacement ratio significantly depends not only on the K value but also on the range of GSI value. In particular, for lower range of GSI value, the displacement ratio pattern calculated in the elasto-plastic regime is opposite to that predicted by the elasticity theory. In addition, the variation of the radial displacement ratio with GSI value for different types of plastic potential function showed similar trend.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.277-290
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• 2020

This paper presents an elastic-plastic solution for the circular tunnel of elastic-strain softening behavior considering the pressure-dependent Young's modulus and the nonlinear dilatancy. The proposed solution is verified by the results of the field measuring and numerical simulation from a practical project, and a published closed-form analysis solution. The influence of each factor is discussed in detail, and the ability of Young's modulus and dilatancy characterizing the mechanical response of surrounding rock is investigated. It is found that, in low levels of support pressure, adopting the constant Young's modulus model will seriously misestimate the surrounding rock deformation. Using the constant dilatancy model will underestimate the surrounding rock deformation. When adopting the constant dilatancy model, as the dilation angle increases, the range of the plastic region increases, and the surrounding rock deformation weakens. When adopting the nonlinear dilatancy, the plastic region range and the surrounding rock deformation are the largest. The surrounding rock deformation using pressure-dependent Young's modulus model is between those resulted from two constant Young's modulus models. The constant α of pressuredependent Young's modulus model is the main factor affecting the tunnel displacement. The influence of α using a constant dilatancy model is much more apparent than that using a nonlinear dilatancy model.