Three-dimensional active earth pressure from cohesive backfills with tensile strength cutoff

Most of previous analyses on the active earth pressure were performed in two-dimensional cases using the Mohr-Coulomb (M-C) failure function to describe the soil strength. However, all failures of retained slopes indicate a somewhat three-dimensional (3D) feature, and the M-C function is found to overestimate the tensile strength of cohesive soil. In this work, a kinematic limit analysis–based approach is developed for computing the 3D active earth pressure resulting from cohesive backfills. The concept of tensile strength cutoff is adopted to implement the reduction or elimination of tensile strength from the strength envelope. An extended 3D horn failure mechanism that is associated with the modified strength envelope is developed to characterize the collapse of retained slopes. The resultant of active earth pressure is evaluated from the work rate balance equation and expressed as an unfactored coefficient. The obtained results indicate that less support provided by the wall is required when allowing the existence of soil cohesion and 3D effects and that eliminating the tensile strength can observably increase the active earth pressure, especially for the backfill with a great level of cohesion.     

EXPLORATION ENGINEERING

正20141864 Deng Mengchun(Institute of Exploration Technology,CAGS,Chengdu 611734,China);Huang Shenghui Rock Sample Collection and Division Technologies for Air Reverse Circulation Sampling Drilling(Exploration Engineering,ISSN1672-7428,CN11-5063/TD,40(7),2013,p.73-76,80,16 illus.,5 refs.)     

Stability analysis of tunnels driven in jointed rocks by means of a homogenized limit analysis approach

Conceived as a potential alternative to the classical design methods employed for analyzing the stability of underground structures driven in jointed rocks, the homogenization approach stems from the heuristic idea that, from a macroscopic point of view, a rock mass cut by a network of joints may be perceived as a homogenized continuum. The strength properties of the latter can be theoretically obtained from the failure conditions of its individual constituents: rock matrix and joint interfaces. At the material level, the limit analysis reasoning is used in the context of homogenization to formulate the homogenized strength criterion of a jointed rock mass in the particular situation of a single set of parallel joints. As it could be expected, the obtained closed‐form expressions show the strength anisotropy induced by joint preferential orientation. The support functions (π functions) associated with the homogenized strength criterion are also determined in both plane strain and three‐dimensional cases. This criterion is then applied to the investigation of stability analysis of a tunnel excavated in a jointed rock mass. Upper bounds estimated of the stability factor are derived from the implementation of the kinematic approach directly on the homogenized underground structure. Finally, the approach is applied to analyze and discuss the collapse of the Pinheiros subway station (São Paulo, Brazil). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stress‐dependent elastic wave velocity of microfractured sandstone

A model for the stress‐dependent elastic wave velocity response of fractured rock mass is proposed based on experimental evidence of stress‐dependent fracture normal and shear stiffness. Previously proposed models and previous experimental studies on stress‐dependent fracture stiffness have been reviewed to provide a basis for the new model. Most of the existing stress‐dependent elastic wave velocity models are empirical, with model parameters that do not have clear physical meanings. To propose the new model, the rock mass is assumed to have randomly oriented microscopic fractures. In addition, the characteristic length of microfractures is assumed to be sufficiently short compared to the rock mass dimensions. The macroscopic stress‐dependent elastic wave velocity response is assumed to be attributed to the stress dependency of fracture stiffness. The stress‐dependent fracture normal stiffness is defined as a generalized power law function of effective normal stress, which is a modification of the Goodman's model. On the other hand, the stress dependency of fracture shear stiffness is modeled as a linear function of normal stress based on experimental data. Ultrasonic wave velocity responses of a dry core sample of Berea sandstone were tested at effective stresses ranging from 2 to 55 MPa. Visual observation of thin sections obtained from the Berea sandstone confirms that the assumptions made for microstructure of rock mass model are appropriate. It is shown that the model can describe the stress‐dependent ultrasonic wave velocity responses of dry Berea sandstone with a set of reasonable material parameter values. Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

A methodology for regionalizing 3‐D effective porosity at watershed scale in crystalline aquifers

An innovative approach for regionalizing the 3‐D effective porosity field is presented and applied to two large, overexploited, and deeply weathered crystalline aquifers located in southern India. The method derives from earlier work on regionalizing a 2‐D effective porosity field in that part of an aquifer where the water table fluctuates, which is now extended over the entire aquifer using a 3‐D approach. A method based on geological and geophysical surveys has also been developed for mapping the weathering profile layers (saprolite and fractured layers). The method for regionalizing 3‐D effective porosity combines water table fluctuation and groundwater budget techniques at various cell sizes with the use of satellite‐based data (for groundwater abstraction), the structure of the weathering profile, and geostatistical techniques. The approach is presented in detail for the Kudaliar watershed (983 km²) and tested on the 730 km² Anantapur watershed. At watershed scale, the effective porosity of the aquifer ranges from 0.5% to 2% in Kudaliar and between 0.3% and 1% in Anantapur, which agrees with earlier works. Results show that (a) depending on the geology and on the structure of the weathering profile, the vertical distribution of effective porosity can be very different and that the fractured layers in crystalline aquifers are not necessarily characterized by a rapid decrease in effective porosity and (b) that the lateral variations in effective porosity can be larger than the vertical ones. These variations suggest that within a same weathering profile, the density of open fractures and/or degree of weathering in the fractured zone may significantly vary from a place to another. The proposed method provides information on the spatial distribution of effective porosity that is of prime interest in terms of flux and contaminant transport in crystalline aquifers. Implications for mapping groundwater storage and scarcity are also discussed, which should help in improving groundwater resource management strategies.     

Mechanical transitional behavior of binary mixtures via DEM: Effect of differences in contact-type friction coefficients

This report presents a numerical investigation of the shear behavior of binary mixtures via a two-dimensional discrete element method. The effect of the coarse particle content on the peak shear strength of mixtures is investigated for different contact-type friction coefficients. A detailed analysis on the anisotropies enables us to understand the microscopic mechanisms that result in the dependency of the peak shear strengths on the coarse particle content. The contributions of different contact types to the peak shear strength are quantified. Lastly, the inter-particles structures are examined when the binary mixtures become coarse-particle-supported structures.     

HYDROGEOLOGY & ENGINEERING GEOLOGY

正1.HYDROGEOLOGY20142452Chang Chengcao(Institute of Coalfield Geological Survey and Design of Jilin Province,Changchun 130062,China)Hydrogeological Type Division of Coal Mine No.2Mine in Yitong Manchu Autonomous County,Jilin Province(Jilin Geology,ISSN1001-2427,CN22-1099/P,32(4),2013,p.129-131,3refs.)     

From soil aggregates to riverine flocs: a laboratory experiment assessing the respective effects of soil type and flow shear stress on particles characteristics

Particles eroded from hillslopes and exported to rivers are recognized to be composite particles of high internal complexity. Their architecture and composition are known to influence their transport behaviour within the water column relative to discrete particles. To‐date, hillslope erosion studies consider aggregates to be stable once they are detached from the soil matrix. However, lowland rivers and estuaries studies often suggest that particle structure and dynamics are controlled by flocculation within the water column. In order to improve the understanding of particle dynamics along the continuum from hillslopes to the lowland river environment, soil particle behaviour was tested under controlled laboratory conditions. Seven flume erosion and deposition experiments, designed to simulate a natural erosive event, and five shear cell experiments were performed using three contrasting materials: two of them were poorly developed and as such can not be considered as soils, whilst the third one was a calcareous brown soil. These experiments revealed that soil aggregates were prone to disaggregation within the water column and that flocculation may affect their size distribution during transport. Large differences in effective particle size were found between soil types during the rising limb of the bed shear stress sequence. Indeed, at the maximum applied bed shear stress, the aggregated particles median diameter was found to be three times larger for the well‐developed soil than for the two others. Differences were smaller in the falling limb, suggesting that soil aggregates underwent structural changes. However, characterization of particles strength parameters showed that these changes did not fully turn soil aggregates into flocs, but rather into hybrid soil aggregate–floc particles. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A two‐dimensional coupled hydromechanical discontinuum model for simulating rock hydraulic fracturing

Within the framework of our discontinuous deformation analysis for rock failure algorithm, this paper presents a two‐dimensional coupled hydromechanical discontinuum model for simulating the rock hydraulic fracturing process. In the proposed approach, based on the generated joint network, the calculation of fluid mechanics is performed first to obtain the seepage pressure near the tips of existing cracks, and then the fluid pressure is treated as linearly distributed loads on corresponding block boundaries. The contribution of the hydraulic pressure to the initiation/propagation of the cracks is considered by adding the components of these blocks into the force matrix of the global equilibrium equation. Finally, failure criteria are applied at the crack tips to determine the occurrence of cracking events. Several verification examples are simulated, and the results show that this newly proposed numerical model can simulate the hydraulic fracturing process correctly and effectively. Although the numerical and experimental verifications focus on one unique preexisting crack, because of the capability of discontinuous deformation analysis in simulating block‐like structures, the proposed approach is capable of modeling rock hydraulic fracturing processes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Large‐scale poroelastic fractured reservoirs modeling using the fast multipole displacement discontinuity method

An effective approach to modeling the geomechanical behavior of the network and its permeability variation is to use a poroelastic displacement discontinuity method (DDM). However, the approach becomes rather computationally intensive for an extensive system of cracks, particularly when considering coupled diffusion/deformation processes. This is because of additional unknowns and the need for time‐marching schemes for the numerical integration. The Fast Multipole Method (FMM) is a technique that can accelerate the solution of large fracture problems with linear complexity with the number of unknowns both in memory and CPU time. Previous works combining DDM and FMM for large‐scale problems have accounted only for elastic rocks, neglecting the fluid leak‐off from the fractures into the matrix and its influence on pore pressure and stress field. In this work we develop an efficient geomechanical model for large‐scale natural fracture networks in poroelastic reservoirs with fracture flow in response to injection and production operations. Accuracy and computational performance of the proposed method with those of conventional poroelastic DDM are compared through several case studies involving up to several tens of thousands of boundary elements. The results show the effectiveness of the FMM approach to successfully evaluate field‐scale problems for the design of exploitation strategies in unconventional geothermal and petroleum reservoirs. An example considering faults reveals the impact of reservoir compartmentalization because of sealing faults for both geomechanical and flow variables under elastic and poroelastic rocks. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.