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A numerical study on true triaxial strength and failure characteristics of jointed marble

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Abstract

To investigate the strength and failure characteristics of rock mass, 3D discrete element method (DEM) is used in this study to conduct numerous simulated true triaxial compression tests on jointed marble. Three series of tests are carried out to study the influence of the intermediate principal stress and the joint inclined angle on the macroscopic mechanical characteristics. The DEM simulation results reveal that the strength and failure mechanism have a strong dependency on the intermediate principal stress except for the specimen with the inclined angle of 60° and the joint parallel to the intermediate principal stress direction. In addition, the influence of the joint inclined angle on the strength and failure characteristics is significant except for the specimen with the joint parallel to the minimum principal stress direction. Tensile cracks are the dominant failure mechanism. Based on a 3D true triaxial failure criterion, the simulated strength data can be predicted using four empirical parameters.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51679215) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021M691000). The authors sincerely acknowledge the support from Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education on Safe Mining of Deep Metal Mines, Northeastern University. The authors declare no conflict of interest as far as the author is concerned.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited, Hangzhou, 310014, Zhejiang, China

    Yaohui Gao

  2. College of Civil Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, Zhejiang, China

    Kezhong Wang

  3. School of Resources and Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, China

    Chang Zhou

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  1. Yaohui Gao
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  2. Kezhong Wang
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  3. Chang Zhou
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Correspondence to Kezhong Wang.

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Gao, Y., Wang, K. & Zhou, C. A numerical study on true triaxial strength and failure characteristics of jointed marble. Acta Geotech. 17, 2001–2020 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01300-y

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