Stress‐dependent hardening and failure surfaces of dry sand

During several triaxial compression experiments on plastic hardening, softening, and failure properties of dense sand specimens, it was found on various stress paths that the size of the failure surface was not constant. Instead, it changed depending on the current state of hydrostatic pressure. This finding is in contrast to the standard opinion consisting of the fact that the failure surface remains constant, once it has been reached during an experiment or in situ. In general, the behaviour of cohesionless granular‐material‐like sand is somehow characterised in between fluid and solid, where the solid behaviour results from the angle of internal friction and the confining pressure. Although the friction angle is an intrinsic material property, the confining pressure varies with the boundary conditions, thus defining different solid properties like plastic hardening, softening, and also failure. Based on our findings, it was the goal of the present contribution to introduce an improved setting for the plastic strain hardening and softening behaviour including the newly found yield properties at the limit state. For the identification of the material parameters, a complete triaxial experimental analysis of the tested sand is given. The overall elasto‐plasticity concept is validated by numerical computations of several laboratory foundation‐ and slope‐failure experiments. The performance of the proposed approach is compared with the standard concept of a constant failure surface, where the corresponding yield surfaces are understood as contours of equivalent plastic work or plastic strain. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The fractal geometry of flow paths in natural fractures in rock and the approach to percolation

The distributions of contact areas in single, natural fractures in quartz monzonite (Stripa granite) are found to have fractal dimensions which decrease fromD=2.00 to values nearD=1.96 as stress normal to the fractures is increased from 3 MPa up to 85 MPa. The effect of stress on fluid flow is studied in the same samples. Fluid transport through a fracture depends on two properties of the fracture void space geometry. the void aperture; and the tortuosity of the flow paths, determined through the distribution of contact area. Each of these quantities change under stress and contribute to changes observed in the flow rate. A general flow law is presented which separates these different effects. The effects of tortuosity on flow are largely governed by the proximity of the flow path distribution to a percolation threshold. A fractal model of correlated continuum percolation is presented which quantitatively reproduces the flow path geometries. The fractal dimension in this model is fit to the measured fractal dimensions of the flow systems to determine how far the flow systems are above the percolation threshold.     

Frictional heat generation and seismic radiation in a foam rubber model of earthquakes

Results from a study of stick-slip particle motion at the interface between two stressed foam rubber blocks indicate that normal vibrations and interface separation are an important part of the stick-slip process in foam rubber. The dimension of the dynamic slip pulse is small compared to the dimension of the model (approximately 10 cm vs. 200 cm) consistent with the abrupt-locking slip pulse model ofBrune (1970, 1976), andHeaton (1990). A comparison of frictional heat generation between stable-sliding and stick-slip foam rubber models indicates a linear relation between the temperature increase on the fault surface (for a given distance of slip) and the driving shear force for the stable-sliding model, while for the stick-slip model there is essentially no variation in frictional heat generation with an increase in shear stress. We performed experiments to investigate the ratio of normal motion to shear motion at different levels of normal stress in the stick-slip foam rubber model. Preliminary result indicate that the normal component of the particle motion increases more rapidly with increasing normal stress than the shear component. The phenomenon of interface separation and normal vibrations may thus explain some of the most frustrating problems in earthquake mechanics, e.g., the heat flow paradox, the long-term weakness of major active faults, and anomalousP-wave radiation.     

Discontinuous behaviour near excavations in a bedded salt formation

Summary Discontinuous behaviour is being observed and measured in the vicinity of excavations constructed in a bedded salt formation 650 m below ground surface for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Facility. The 2 m thick salt layer in the immediate roof acts as a beam, shearing along a thin overlying anhydrite/clay seam. Vertical separations between the immediate roof layer and the overlying strata are often observed at the anhydrite/clay seam above the centre of excavations of larger span (11 m). The floor of the excavations is comprised of a 1 m thick salt layer underlain by a 1 m thick predominately anhydrite layer (referred to as MB139). Fractures in MB139 develop beneath most excavations, with increased fracture frequency with drift span and age. In the excavations of larger span (11 m), MB139 eventually debonds along the underlying clay layer. The salt layer overlying MB139 develops both shear and tension failure. In a few locations below excavations of large span, continuous fracture systems are developing from rib to rib through MB139 and the overlying salt. In the ribs, there is limited fracturing within the first metre of most larger excavations. Vertical fractures develop in pillars at most intersections. The discontinuous behaviour is qualitatively consistent with analyses of the formation behaving as a layered medium (elastic beam analysis) and limited tensile and compressive failure of the rock salt. The significance of the discontinuous behaviour is that it can dominate the effective fluid transport properties of the formation near the excavation, and therefore requires consideration in the design of repository seals. Discontinuous behaviour must be monitored and is an important factor in the maintenance programme designed to assure a safe underground environment.     

Interaction among fractures and stress field computation of fracture systems

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假玄武玻璃及其形成过程和机制综述

对假玄武玻璃的概念和特征以及形成环境和产状作了综合性描述，并对其摩擦熔融成因进行了论证，对假玄武玻璃的形成过程和形成机制以及形成假玄武玻璃的地震断层的动力机制、活动方式和脉动性质进行了深入探讨；同时对母岩矿物性质和流体对假玄武玻璃形成的影响进行了分析，概述了假玄武玻璃形成过程中的化学成分变化，最后提出了有待进一步研究的几个问题。     

跨断裂水准剖面观测在地震监测中的应用

由于活动地块的相对运动和变形，其边界带往往构造活动强烈，是反映地壳运动的敏感部位。基于上述思路，昆仑山口西8．1级大震发生后，通过大范围监测布设在青藏块体北部地区及周边主要构造带上的水准剖面，在短期内快速获取了大范围的断裂活动信息和不同断裂带对大区域构造应力场变化的响应特征。实践证明，这种监测方式灵活、作业周期短、资料处理快，能及时对震情趋势做出估计，不失为当前区域形变监测工作的一种新的探索。     

用转换波检测煤层裂隙的方法探讨

根据理论模型计算结果对比分析找出的煤层纵波场和转换波场和转换波场与煤层裂隙状态变化间的相关关系，探讨了综合使用纵波和转换波检测煤层裂隙的可行方法，对有效开展转换法地震勘探工作具有指导意义。     

西昌—滇中地区大、中型内生矿床分布规律及预测

用王亚光研究大型矿床空间分布规律理论来研究西昌—滇中地区大、中型内生矿床的分布规律及预测,用“矿结”一词来表明经纬线方向深大断裂交汇处是大矿的分布空间。1990年所预测的一些成矿区为1991年地质找矿工作所证实,如大红山式铁铜矿的新发现和会东发嵩铝锌矿的新进展。     

Deep crustal growth of quartz, kyanite and garnet into large-aperture, fluid-filled fractures, north-eastern Connecticut, USA

Abstract A petrographic and petrological analysis of exceptionally well-preserved hydrothermal veins from the Merrimack synclinorium, north-eastern Connecticut, has been carried out in order to place new field-based constraints on fracture aperture dimensions and porosity in the lower continental crust. The veins preserve substantial open space today in outcrop, and contain mineral assemblages including subhedral to euhedral crystals of quartz, kyanite and almandine-rich garnet. Textural evidence indicates unequivocally that the vein minerals grew into macroscopic (mm- to cm-scale) open space between the vein walls. The veins are interpreted to have been large-aperture fractures along which significant advective fluid infiltration and chemical reaction occurred. The porosity of the rock mass due to open space between fracture walls today is c . 0.3%, but it could have been as large as several percent when the flow system was active. Quantitative thermobarometry results from vein mineral assemblages indicate that the fractures formed at pressures and corresponding crustal depths of c. 0.8 GPa and c. 30km, and temperatures of 550–600° C. The depth of fracture formation corresponds to published estimates of the maximum burial depth of the Merrimack synclinorium during the Acadian orogeny. The formation of large-aperture fractures could increase significantly the transient permeability of the deep crust, and therefore influence metamorphic heat and mass transfer.