Abstract
Columnar jointed rock masses (CJRM), characterized by regular arrays of polygonal prisms or columns, are exposed in the dam foundation of the Baihetan hydropower station and pose a challenge to the stability of the project. To understand the hydro-mechanical behaviour of Baihetan CJRM, triaxial compression experiments are carried out on artificial CJRM specimens with regular arrays of hexagonal columns, which are similar to the actual CJRM. Based on the experimental results, mechanical and hydraulic behaviour of CJRM is studied. It is found that the compressive strength of CJRM varies in a typical U-shape with the joint inclination angle. Three failure modes associated with the angle of joint inclination are observed. The evolution of permeability with stress exhibits distinct phased characteristics: initial compression stage, linear elastic stage, yield stage, and strain-softening stage. The results of this study provide helpful information for the design and construction of the Baihetan project involving CJRM.
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Abbreviations
- \(\beta\) :
-
Angle of joint inclination
- \(K\) :
-
Permeability
- \(K_{0}\) :
-
Initial permeability
- \(\mu\) :
-
Water dynamic viscosity
- L :
-
Length of flow path
- \(\Delta t\) :
-
Time interval
- \(\Delta V\) :
-
Volume change of water pump within each time interval
- A :
-
Cross-sectional area of rock specimen
- \(\Delta p\) :
-
Hydraulic pressure difference between the top and the bottom of the specimen
- \(\sigma_{i}\) :
-
Peak deviatoric strength of columnar jointed specimen
- \(\sigma_{{\text{c}}}\) :
-
Peak deviatoric strength of intact specimen
- \(R_{{\text{e}}}\) :
-
Reduction parameter
- \(E_{50}\) :
-
Deformation modulus
- \(E_{{\text{s}}}\) :
-
Elastic modulus
- \(\varepsilon_{1}\) :
-
Axial strain
- \(\varepsilon_{3}\) :
-
Radial strain
- \(\varepsilon_{v}\) :
-
Volumetric strain
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Acknowledgements
The financial supports provided by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant no. 2017YFC1501100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 11772116, 11572110), and the Qing Lan Project are gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Dr. Lifang Zou for her help in language proofreading.
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Xiang, Z., Wang, H., Xu, W. et al. Experimental Study on Hydro-mechanical Behaviour of Anisotropic Columnar Jointed Rock-Like Specimens. Rock Mech Rock Eng 53, 5781–5794 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02245-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02245-6