Materials Science Forum, Vol.495-497, 69-74, 2005
Joint inclination effect on strength, stress-strain curve and strain localization of rock in plane strain compression
Peak strength;, mechanical behavior, and shear band (SB) of anisotropic jointed rock (JR) were modeled by Fast Lagangian Analysis of Continua (FLAG). The failure criterion of rock was a composite Mohr-Coulomb criterion with tension cut-off and the post-peak constitutive relation was linear strain-softening. An inclined joint was treated as square elements of ideal plastic material beyond the peak strength. A FISH function was written to find automatically elements in the joint. For the lower or higher joint inclination (JI), the higher peak strength and more apparent strain-softening behavior are observed; the failure of JR is due to the slip along the joint and the new generated SBs initiated at joint's two ends. For the lower JI, the slope of softening branch of stress-strain curve is not concerned with JI since the new and longer SBs's inclination is not dependent on JI, as can be qualitatively explained by previous analytical solution of post-peak slope of stress-strain curve for rock specimen subjected to shear failure in uniaxial compression based on gradient-dependent plasticity. For the higher JI, the post-peak stress-strain curve becomes steeper as JI increases since the contribution of the new SBs undergoing strain-softening behavior to axial strain of JR increases with JI. For the moderate JI, the lower strength and ideal plastic behavior beyond the elastic stage are found, reflecting that the inclined joint governs the deformation of JR. The present numerical prediction on anisotropic peak strength in plane strain compression qualitatively agrees with triaxial experimental tests of many kinds of rocks. Comparison of the present numerical prediction on JI corresponding to the minimum peak strength of JR and the oversimplified theoretical result by Jaeger shows that Jaeger's formula has overestimated the value of JI.