Abstract

Rock and discontinuities are main factors consisting of a rock mass and the physical properties of each factor have direct effects on the mechanical stability of artificial structures in the rock mass. Because physical properties of the rock and discontinuities change a lot according to the size of test materials, a close attention is needed when the physical properties, obtained from laboratory tests, are used for the design of field structures. In this study, change of physical properties of intact materials due to the change of their size are studied. Six kinds of artificial materials including crystal, instead of an intact rock, are adopted for the study to guarantee the homogeneity of specimen materials even with relatively large size. Uniaxial strength and Young's modulus of each artificial material are checked out for a size effect and compared with the predicted values by Buckingham's theorem - dimensional analysis. A numerical analysis using PFC (Particle Flow Code) is also applied and primary factors influencing on the size effect are investigated.