Abstract

a tunnel or an underground structure is excavated in deep geological environments, the failure process is affected and eventually dominated by stress-induced fractures growing preferentially parallel to the excavation boundary. This fracturing is generally referred to as brittle failure by spalling and slabbing. Continuum models with traditional failure criteria such as Hoek-Brown or Mohr-Coulomb criteria have not been successful in prediction of the extent and depth of brittle failure. Instead cohesion weakening and frictional strengthening (CWFS) model is known to predict brittle failure well. In this study, CWFS model was applied to predict the brittle failure around a circular opening observed in physical model experiments. To obtain the input parameters for CWFS model, damage-controlled tests were carried out. The predicted depth and extent of brittle failure using CWFS model were compared to the results of the physical model experiment and numerical simulation using traditional model.