Nathapon Fatsiri. Failure behavior of jointed rock mass surrounding underground cavern under high internal pressure. Master's Degree(Civil Engineering). King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. KMUTT Library. : King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 2011.
Failure behavior of jointed rock mass surrounding underground cavern under high internal pressure
Abstract:
This research presents the investigation of failure behavior of rock mass with existing
joints surrounding the underground cavern under high internal pressure through a series
of physical model tests under 1-g scaled-model. Using this approach, the experimental
sample size is decreased by 200 times of the prototype, which is a silo-shaped and a
tunnel-shaped underground caverns. The silo consists of a cavern crown 0.1 m in
diameter and 0.2 m in height, whereas the tunnel is 0.1 m in diameter. The depth from
an upper surface of model to the center of the silo and the tunnel is 0.5 m. The rock is
simulated from mixtures of plaster, sand and water. In order to investigate the failure
behavior, only half of the entire problem for silo is modeled. For the modeled tunnel,
which can be considered as a plane strain, 15 cm in length of the modeled tunnel axis is
prepared. Six tests including two problem conditions (axis symmetry for silo and plane
strain for tunnel) and three values of dip angle of joint (0, 30 and 60) are conducted
by fixing the Ko = 1 and a vertical stress level equivalent to the depth of 125 m. During
the tests, the internal pressure is progressively increased until a crack is initiated and
progressive failure is observed. The strain field from a photogrammetric analysis is used
to capture behavior of rock mass around the underground storage cavern. The location
of a predominant crack is observed as well. The results reveal that the dip angle of the
joint has no influence on the crack initiation point. The crack would propagate along the
joint once it approaches the joint. After that, at a certain distance, it would propagate in
rock mass again with an upward direction to the ground surface.