C.A. Tang

Preliminary engineering application of microseismic monitoring technique to rockburst prediction in tunneling of Jinping II project

Abstract Monitoring and prediction of rockburst remain to be worldwide challenges in geotechnical engineering. In hydropower, transportation and other engineering fields in China, more deep, long and large tunnels have been under construction in recent years and underground caverns are more evidently featured by “long, large, deep and in group”, which bring in many problems associated with rock mechanics problems at great depth, especially rockburst. Rockbursts lead to damages to not only underground structures and equipments but also personnel safety. It has been a major technical bottleneck in future deep underground engineering in China. In this paper, compared with earthquake prediction, the feasibility in principle of monitoring and prediction of rockbursts is discussed, considering the source zones, development cycle and scale. The authors think the feasibility of rockburst prediction can be understood in three aspects: (1) the heterogeneity of rock is the main reason for the existence of rockburst precursors; (2) deformation localization is the intrinsic cause of rockburst; and (3) the interaction between target rock mass and its surrounding rock mass is the external cause of rockburst. As an engineering practice, the application of microseismic monitoring techniques during tunnel construction of Jinping II Hydropower Station was reported. It is found that precursory microcracking exists prior to most rockbursts, which could be captured by the microseismic monitoring system. The stress concentration is evident near structural discontinuities (such as faults or joints), which shall be the focus of rockburst monitoring. It is concluded that, by integrating the microseismic monitoring and the rock failure process simulation, the feasibility of rockburst prediction is expected to be enhanced.

The Dynamic Evaluation of Rock Slope Stability Considering the Effects of Microseismic Damage

A state-of-the-art microseismic monitoring system has been implemented at the left bank slope of the Jinping first stage hydropower station since June 2009. The main objectives are to ensure slope safety under continuous excavation at the left slope, and, very recently, the safety of the concrete arch dam. The safety of the excavated slope is investigated through the development of fast and accurate real-time event location techniques aimed at assessing the evolution and migration of the seismic activity, as well as through the development of prediction capabilities for rock slope instability. Myriads of seismic events at the slope have been recorded by the microseismic monitoring system. Regions of damaged rock mass have been identified and delineated on the basis of the tempo-spatial distribution analysis of microseismic activity during the periods of excavation and consolidation grouting. However, how to effectively utilize the abundant microseismic data in order to quantify the stability of the slope remains a challenge. In this paper, a rock mass damage evolutional model based on microseismic data is proposed, combined with a 3D finite element method (FEM) model for feedback analysis of the left bank slope stability. The model elements with microseismic damage are interrogated and the deteriorated mechanical parameters determined accordingly. The relationship between microseismic activities induced by rock mass damage during slope instability, strength degradation, and dynamic instability of the slope are explored, and the slope stability is quantitatively evaluated. The results indicate that a constitutive relation considering microseismic damage is concordant with the simulation results and the influence of rock mass damage can be allowed for its feedback analysis of 3D slope stability. In addition, the safety coefficient of the rock slope considering microseismic damage is reduced by a value of 0.11, in comparison to the virgin rock slope model. Our results demonstrate that microseismic activity induced by construction disturbance only slightly affects the stability of the slope. The proposed feedback analysis technique provides a novel method for dynamically assessing rock slope stability and can be used to assess the slope stability of other similar rock slopes.

Three-Dimensional Numerical Investigations of the Failure Mechanism of a Rock Disc with a Central or Eccentric Hole

The diametrical compression of a circular disc (Brazilian test) or cylinder with a small eccentric hole is a simple but important test to determine the tensile strength of rocks. This paper studies the failure mechanism of circular disc with an eccentric hole by a 3D numerical model (RFPA3D). A feature of the code RFPA3D is that it can numerically simulate the evolution of cracks in three-dimensional space, as well as the heterogeneity of the rock mass. First, numerically simulated Brazilian tests are compared with experimental results. Special attention is given to the effect of the thickness to radius ratio on the failure modes and the peak stress of specimens. The effects of the compressive strength to tensile strength ratio (C/T), the loading arc angle (2α), and the homogeneity index (m) are also studied in the numerical simulations. Secondly, the failure process of a rock disc with a central hole is studied. The effects of the ratio of the internal hole radius (r) to the radius of the rock disc (R) on the failure mode and the peak stress are investigated. Thirdly, the influence of the vertical and horizontal eccentricity of an internal hole on the initiation and propagation of cracks inside a specimen are simulated. The effect of the radius of the eccentric hole and the homogeneity index (m) are also investigated.

Microseismic Monitoring of Strainburst Activities in Deep Tunnels at the Jinping II Hydropower Station, China

Rockbursts were frequently encountered during the construction of deep tunnels at the Jinping II hydropower station, Southwest China. Investigations of the possibility of rockbursts during tunnel boring machine (TBM) and drilling and blasting (D&B) advancement are necessary to guide the construction of tunnels and to protect personnel and TBM equipment from strainburst-related accidents. A real-time, movable microseismic monitoring system was installed to forecast strainburst locations ahead of the tunnel faces. The spatiotemporal distribution evolution of microseismic events prior to and during strainbursts was recorded and analysed. The concentration of microseismic events prior to the occurrence of strainbursts was found to be a significant precursor to strainbursts in deep rock tunnelling. During a 2-year microseismic investigation of strainbursts in the deep tunnels at the Jinping II hydropower station, a total of 2240 strainburst location forecasts were issued, with 63xa0% correctly forecasting the locations of strainbursts. The successful forecasting of strainburst locations proved that microseismic monitoring is essential for the assessment and mitigation of strainburst hazards, and can be used to minimise damage to equipment and personnel. The results of the current study may be valuable for the construction management and safety assessment of similar underground rock structures under high in situ stress.

A Mesostructure-based Damage Model for Thermal Cracking Analysis and Application in Granite at Elevated Temperatures

Thermal stress within rock subjected to thermal load is induced due to the different expansion rates of mineral grains, resulting in the initiation of new inter-granular cracking and failure at elevated temperatures. The heterogeneity resulting from each constituent of rock should be taken into account in the study of rock thermal cracking, which may aid the better understanding of the thermal cracking mechanisms in rock. In this paper, a mesostructure-based numerical model for the analysis of rock thermal cracking is proposed on the basis of elastic damage mechanics and thermal–elastic theory. In the proposed model, digital image processing (DIP) techniques are employed to characterize the morphology of the minerals in the actual rock structure to build a numerical specimen for the rock. In addition, the damage accumulation induced by thermal (T) and mechanical (M) loads is considered to modify the elastic modulus, strength and thermal properties of individual elements with the intensity of damage. The proposed model is implemented in the well-established rock failure process analysis (RFPA) code, and a DIP-based RFPA for the analysis of thermally induced stress and cracking of rock (abbreviated as RFPA-DTM) is developed. The model is then validated by comparing the simulated results with the well-known analytical solutions. Finally, taking an image from a granite specimen as an example, the proposed model is used to study the thermal cracking process of the granite at elevated temperatures and the effects of temperature on the physical–mechanical behaviors of the granite are discussed. It is found that thermal cracks mostly initiate at the location of mineral grain boundaries and propagate along them to form locally closed polygons at the elevated temperatures. Moreover, the effects of temperature on the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of the granite are quite different. The uniaxial compressive strength decreases consistently with increasing temperature, but there exists a threshold temperature for elastic modulus which starts to decrease as the temperature increases after it exceeds the threshold.

Study on crack curving and branching mechanism in quasi-brittle materials under dynamic biaxial loading

Attempts are made to analyze the temporal and spatial effect and the complex mechanical behaviors of microcracks and the macro crack at mesoscopic scale based on the damage evolution principle. The mechanism of crack curving and branching in quasi-brittle materials under dynamic biaxial loading is investigated. The effects of different ratios between the load in the horizontal and vertical directions (for convenience, the loading ratio is denoted by B in this paper), crack dip angles and material homogeneity on crack curving and branching are considered. The results indicate that: Crack curving is mainly controlled by the loading ratio, while initiation and propagation of branch microcracks are related to the stress level. The initial dip angle of crack can vary the stress configuration at the crack tip zone. If the loading ratio remains constant, the crack tends to propagate toward the vertical direction with increasing crack dip angle. It is also found that heterogeneity due to defects in the material play an important role in the distribution of tiny voids and cracks in the material and the crack propagation mode. The results in this study are not only in good agreement with the physical test results, but also can provide some valuable reference for studies on the tensile properties and failure modes of heterogeneous quasi-brittle materials with internal defects.

A New Method to Evaluate Rock Mass Brittleness Based on Stress–Strain Curves of Class I

Brittleness is a key controlling parameter for rock engineering projects such as hydrocarbon production and other applications. In this paper, commonly used methods based on stress–strain curves of Class I for the calculation of rock brittleness are reviewed. In order to describe the rock brittleness more reasonable, the new index Bi was proposed based on the stress drop rate obtained from post-peak stress–strain curve and the ratio of elastic energy released during failure to the total energy stored before the peak strength. Then the validity of Bi is verified with experimental tests conducted on rock specimens drilled from the interlayer and oil layer through a well of Shengli Oilfield. Moreover, numerical simulation is performed to analyze the effects of primary mechanical parameters on the brittleness of rock masses. Based on experimental tests and numerical simulation results, the acoustic emission modes influenced by brittleness index Bi are summarized. At last, correlation between acoustic emission mechanism and index Bi is verified by comparing the acoustic emission modes of limestone under different levels of confining pressure and various types of coal.

Numerical SHPB Tests of Rocks Under Combined Static and Dynamic Loading Conditions with Application to Dynamic Behavior of Rocks Under In Situ Stresses

A modified split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) numerical testing system is established to study the characteristics of rocks under simultaneous static and dynamic loading conditions following verification of the capability of the SHPB numerical system through comparison with laboratory measurements (Liao et al. in Rock Mech Rock Eng, 2016. doi:10.1007/s00603-016-0954-8). Three different methods are employed in this numerical testing system to address the contact problem between a rock specimen and bars. The effects of stand-alone static axial pressure, stand-alone lateral confining pressures, and a combination of them are analyzed. It is determined that the rock total strength and the dynamic strength are greatly dependent on the static axial and confining pressures. Moreover, the friction along the interfaces between the rock specimen and bars cannot be ignored, particularly for high axial pressure conditions. Subsequently, the findings are applied to determine the dynamic behavior of rocks with in situ stresses. The effects of the magnitude of horizontal and vertical initial stresses at varied depths and their ratios are investigated. It is observed that the dynamic strength of deep rocks increases with increasing depth or the ratio of horizontal-to-vertical initial stresses (K). The dynamic behavior of deeper rocks is more sensitive to K, and the rock dynamic strength increases faster with depth in areas with higher K.

Numerical investigation of dynamic crack branching under biaxial loading

Dynamic crack growth and branching of a running crack under various biaxial loading conditions in homogeneous and heterogeneous brittle or quasi-brittle materials is investigated numerically using RFPA2D (two-dimensional rock failure process analysis)-Dynamic program which is fully parallelized with OpenMP directives on Windows. Six 2D models were set up to examine the effect of biaxial dynamic loading and heterogeneity on crack growth. The numerical simulation vividly depicts the whole evolution of crack and captured the crack path and the angles between branches. The path of crack propagation for homogenous materials is straight trajectory while for heterogeneous materials is curved. Increasing the ratio of the loading stress in x-direction to the stress in y-direction, the macroscopic angles between branches become larger. Some parasitic small cracks are also observed in simulation. For heterogeneous brittle and quasi-brittle materials coalescence of the microcracks is the mechanism of dynamic crack growth and branching. The crack tip propagation velocity is determined by material properties and independent of loading conditions.

Determination of Dynamic Compressive and Tensile Behavior of Rocks from Numerical Tests of Split Hopkinson Pressure and Tension Bars

FEM-based numerical testing systems of the split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) and the split Hopkinson tensile bar (SHTB) are established to study the characteristics of rock materials under dynamic compressive and tensile loadings. First of all, the accuracy and applicability of the numerical testing system are validated and calibrated through comparison between the laboratory measurements and the simulation results. Subsequently, the dynamic behavior of rock is analyzed in detail with the numerical testing system followed by the underlying physical mechanism. For the SHPB tests, the simulation results demonstrate that the incident waveform is determined by the striker length, the striker shape and the pulse shaper. The dynamic increase factor (DIF) of the rock specimen varies with different impact velocities, which is attributed to the strain rate effect. The rock specimen size and bar size also have effects on the DIF. In addition, the interfacial friction between the rock specimen and the bars cannot be ignored. For the SHTB tests, it is found that the incident waveform is dependent on the striker tube length and the striker tube thickness. In addition, similar to the SHPB tests, the impact velocity, rock specimen size and bar size all have strong effects on the rock dynamic tensile strength.