Open Access

ABSTRACT

Homogenized response of jointed rock masses with periodic fields

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1 Department of Mechanics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thákurova 7, 166 29, Prague 6, Czech Republic

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences 2007, 4(2), 129-136. https://doi.org/10.3970/icces.2007.004.129

Abstract

Rock masses with relatively high concentration of discontinuities or joints are considered. Being aware of limitations of various averaging techniques such as the self consistent or Mori-Tanaka methods in providing reliable estimates of generally nonlinear macroscopic response of jointed rock masses, the paper introduces a notion of statistically equivalent periodic unit cell (SEPUC). Such a unit cell contains, in order to reduce the problem complexity, of the orders of magnitude less number of joints in comparison with the actual material system. In analogy with two-phase composites, the SEPUC is expected to be found in a statistical sense by matching suitable microstructure descriptors of both the actual microstructure and periodic one. A possibility of using the second order intensity function as a informative descriptor of the cracks distribution is investigated and possible improvements, although without computational support, are proposed. These will be described in the following paper.

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