Crack initiation stress and strain of jointed rock containing multi-cracks under uniaxial compressive loading: A particle flow code approach

The ratio of crack initiation stress to the uniaxial compressive strength(SCI,B/SUC,B) and the ratio of axial strain at the crack initiation stress to the axial strain at the uniaxial compressive strength(B,UCB,CI,A,A/SSSS) were studied by performing numerical stress analysis on blocks having multi flaws at close spacing’s under uniaxial loading using PFC3 D. The following findings are obtained: SCI,B/SUC,B has an average value of about 0.5 with a variability of ± 0.1. This range agrees quite well with the values obtained by former research. For joint inclination angle, β=90°,B,UCB,CI,A,A/SSSS is found to be around 0.48 irrespective of the value of joint continuity factor, k. No particular relation is found betweenB,UCB,CI,A,A/SSSS and β; however, the average B,UCB,CI,A,A/SSSS seems to slightly decrease with increasing k. The variability ofB,UCB,CI,A,A/SSSS is found to increase with k.Based on the cases studied in this work,B,UCB,CI,A,A/SSSS ranges between 0.3 and 0.5. This range is quite close to the range of 0.4to 0.6 obtained for SCI,B/SUC,B. The highest variability of ± 0.12 forB,UCB,CI,A,A/SSSS is obtained for k=0.8. For the remaining k values the variability ofB,UCB,CI,A,A/SSSS can be expressed within ± 0.05. This finding is very similar to the finding obtained for the variability of SCI,B/SUC,B.