The initiation and propagation of failure in intact rock are a matter of fundamental importance in rock engineering. At low confining pressures, tensile fracturing initiates in samples at 40%–60% of the uniaxial compressive strength and as loading continues, and these tensile fractures increase in density, ultimately coalescing and leading to strain localization and macro-scale shear failure of the samples. The Griffith theory of brittle failure provides a simplified model and a useful basis for discussion of this process. The Hoek–Brown failure criterion provides an acceptable estimate of the peak strength for shear failure but a cutoff has been added for tensile conditions. However, neither of these criteria adequately explains the progressive coalition of tensile cracks and the final shearing of the specimens at higher confining stresses. Grain-based numerical models, in which the grain size distributions as well as the physical properties of the component grains of the rock are incorporated, have proved to be very useful in studying these more complex fracture processes.

The goal of this review paper is to provide a summary of selected discrete element and hybrid finite–discrete element modeling techniques that have emerged in the field of rock mechanics as simulation tools for fracturing processes in rocks and rock masses. The fundamental principles of each computer code are illustrated with particular emphasis on the approach specifically adopted to simulate fracture nucleation and propagation and to account for the presence of rock mass discontinuities. This description is accompanied by a brief review of application studies focusing on laboratory-scale models of rock failure processes and on the simulation of damage development around underground excavations.

This is a review paper on the performances of both conventional and energy-absorbing rockbolts manifested in laboratory tests. Characteristic parameters such as ultimate load, displacement and energy absorption are reported, in addition to load–displacement graphs for every type of rockbolt. Conventional rockbolts refer to mechanical rockbolts, fully-grouted rebars and frictional rockbolts. According to the test results, under static pull loading a mechanical rockbolt usually fails at the plate; a fully-grouted rebar bolt fails in the bolt shank at an ultimate load equal to the strength of the steel after a small amount of displacement; and a frictional rockbolt is subjected to large displacement at a low yield load. Under shear loading, all types of bolts fail in the shank. Energy-absorbing rockbolts are developed aiming to combat instability problems in burst-prone and squeezing rock conditions. They absorb deformation energy either through ploughing/slippage at predefined load levels or through stretching of the steel bolt. An energy-absorbing rockbolt can carry a high load and also accommodate significant rock displacement, and thus its energy-absorbing capacity is high. The test results show that the energy absorption of the energy-absorbing bolts is much larger than that of all conventional bolts. The dynamic load capacity is smaller than the static load capacity for the energy-absorbing bolts displacing based on ploughing/slippage while they are approximately the same for the D-Bolt that displaces based on steel stretching.

A shape hardening function is developed that improves the predictive capabilities of the generalized bounding surface model for cohesive soils, especially when applied to overconsolidated specimens. This improvement is realized without any changes to the simple elliptical shape of the bounding surface, and actually reduces the number of parameters associated with the model by one.

Simulations are conducted using five new artificial neural networks developed herein to demonstrate and investigate the behavior of rock material under polyaxial loading. The effects of the intermediate principal stress on the intact rock strength are investigated and compared with laboratory results from the literature. To normalize differences in laboratory testing conditions, the stress state is used as the objective parameter in the artificial neural network model predictions. The variations of major principal stress of rock material with intermediate principal stress, minor principal stress and stress state are investigated. The artificial neural network simulations show that for the rock types examined, none were independent of intermediate principal stress effects. In addition, the results of the artificial neural network models, in general agreement with observations made by others, show (a) a general trend of strength increasing and reaching a peak at some intermediate stress state factor, followed by a decline in strength for most rock types; (b) a post-peak strength behavior dependent on the minor principal stress, with respect to rock type; (c) sensitivity to the stress state, and to the interaction between the stress state and uniaxial compressive strength of the test data by the artificial neural networks models (two-way analysis of variance; 95% confidence interval). Artificial neural network modeling, a self-learning approach to polyaxial stress simulation, can thus complement the commonly observed difficult task of conducting true triaxial laboratory tests, and/or other methods that attempt to improve two-dimensional (2D) failure criteria by incorporating intermediate principal stress effects.

In this paper, the ability of the distinct lattice spring model (DLSM) for modeling stress wave propagation in rocks was fully investigated. The influence of particle size on simulation of different types of stress waves (e.g. one-dimensional (1D) P-wave, 1D S-wave and two-dimensional (2D) cylindrical wave) was studied through comparing results predicted by the DLSM with different mesh ratios (lr) and those obtained from the corresponding analytical solutions. Suggested values of lr were obtained for modeling these stress waves accurately. Moreover, the weak material layer method and virtual joint plane method were used to model P-wave and S-wave propagating through a single discontinuity. The results were compared with the classical analytical solutions, indicating that the virtual joint plane method can give better results and is recommended. Finally, some remarks of the DLSM on modeling of stress wave propagation in rocks were provided.

Natural soils are more durable than almost all man-made materials. Evapotranspiration (ET) covers use vegetated soil layers to store water until it is either evaporated from the soil surface or transpired through vegetation. ET covers rely on the water storage capacity of soil layer, rather than low permeability materials, to minimize percolation. While the use of ET covers in landfills increased over the last decade, they were mainly used in arid or semi-arid regions. At present, the use of ET covers has not been thoroughly investigated in humid areas. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of ET covers in humid areas where there is an annual precipitation of more than 800 mm. Numerical analyses were carried out to investigate the influences of cover thickness, soil type, vegetation level and distribution of precipitation on performance of ET covers. Performance and applicability of capillary barriers and a new-type cover were analyzed. The results show that percolation decreases with an increasing cover thickness and an increasing vegetation level, but the increasing trend becomes unclear when certain thickness or LAI (leaf area index) is reached. Cover soil with a large capability of water storage is recommended to minimize percolation. ET covers are significantly influenced by distribution of precipitation and are more effective in areas where rainy season coincides with hot season. Capillary barriers are more efficient than monolithic covers. The new cover is better than the monolithic cover in performance and the final percolation is only 0.5% of the annual precipitation.

The new Austrian tunneling method (NATM) is widely applied in design and construction of underground engineering projects. When the type and distribution of unfavorable geological bodies (UGBs) associated with their influences on geoengineering are complicated or unfortunately are overlooked, we should pay more attentions to internal features of rocks grades IV and V (even in local but mostly controlling zones). With increasing attentions to the characteristics, mechanism and influences of engineering construction-triggered geohazards, it is crucial to fully understand the disturbance of these geohazards on project construction. A reasonable determination method in construction procedure, i.e. the shape of working face, the type of engineering support and the choice of feasible procedure, should be considered in order to mitigate the construction-triggered geohazards. Due to their high sensitivity to groundwater and in-situ stress, various UGBs exhibit hysteretic nature and failure modes. To give a complete understanding on the internal causes, the emphasis on advanced comprehensive geological forecasting and overall reinforcement treatment is therefore of more practical significance. Comprehensive evaluation of influential factors, identification of UGB, and measures of discontinuity dynamic controlling comprises the geoengineering condition evaluation and dynamic controlling method. In a case of a cut slope, the variations of UGBs and the impacts of key environmental factors are presented, where more severe construction-triggered geohazards emerged in construction stage than those predicted in design and field investigation stages. As a result, the weight ratios of different influential factors with respect to field investigation, design and construction are obtained.

The interaction between plates and foundations is a typical problem encountered in geotechnical engineering. The long-term plate performance is highly dependent on the rheological characteristics of ground soil. Compared with conventional linear rheology, the fractional calculus-based theory is a more powerful mathematical tool that can address this issue. This paper proposes a fractional Merchant model (FMM) to investigate the time-dependent behavior of a simply supported rectangular plate on viscoelastic foundation. The correspondence principle involving Laplace transforms was employed to derive the closed-form solutions of plate response under uniformly distributed load. The plate deflection, bending moment, and foundation reaction calculated using the FMM were compared with the results obtained from the analogous elastic model (EM) and the standard Merchant model (SMM). It is shown that the upper and lower bound solutions of the FMM can be determined using the EM. In addition, a parametric study was performed to examine the influences of the model parameters on the time-dependent behavior of the plate–foundation interaction problem. The results indicate that a small fractional differential order corresponds to a plate resting on a sandy soil foundation, while the fractional differential order value should be increased for a clayey soil foundation. The long-term performance of a foundation plate can be accurately simulated by varying the values of the fractional differential order and the viscosity coefficient. The observations from this study reveal that the proposed fractional model has the capability to capture the variation of plate deflection over many decades of time.

Limit equilibrium method (LEM) and strength reduction method (SRM) are the most widely used methods for slope stability analysis. However, it can be noted that they both have some limitations in practical application. In the LEM, the constitutive model cannot be considered and many assumptions are needed between slices of soil/rock. The SRM requires iterative calculations and does not give the slip surface directly. A method for slope stability analysis based on the graph theory is recently developed to directly calculate the minimum safety factor and potential critical slip surface according to the stress results of numerical simulation. The method is based on current stress state and can overcome the disadvantages mentioned above in the two traditional methods. The influences of edge generation and mesh geometry on the position of slip surface and the safety factor of slope are studied, in which a new method for edge generation is proposed, and reasonable mesh size is suggested. The results of benchmark examples and a rock slope show good accuracy and efficiency of the presented method.