Brittle Rock Property and Damage Index Assessment for Predicting Brittle Failure in Excavations

摘要

Excavations at great depth are widely used for various utility caverns, tunnels and nuclear waste repositories. Generally, these excavations are carried out in high in situ stress and in fresh hard rock conditions. With deep excavations, there is a strong possibility of failure by stress-induced brittle failure in the form of spalling or slabbing. In designing supports, the depth at which brittle failure may occur during excavation is of particular interest. Several research projects have been conducted to predict brittle failure around excavations in rock (Hoek and Brown 1980; Martin et al. 1999; Cai et al. 2004; Martin 2005).