Comprehensive Model for Rock Discontinuities

The full understanding and analytical modeling of rock discontinuity behavior requires a comprehensive model that can describe the entire history leading to the present state of the discontinuity as well as subsequent changes of this state. The comprehensive model presented in this paper is based on a general purpose elastic viscoplastic critical state model that can be applied to most materials used in civil engineering. In a newly developed stress-strain-time space, the entire stress-strain history, including time-related effects like creep and consolidation, can be represented. The concept of the critical state makes a complete description of post-yield behavior possible which is of particular importance for rock discontinuities. The powerful capabilities of the comprehensive model are demonstrated by performing the required full description of rock discontinuity behavior. A comparison with the best known rock discontinuity models shows both the versatility of the comprehensive model and the possible inadequacies of these previous models.