Polyhedral modelling of rock mass structure

Elmouttie, Marc; Poropat, George; Krahenbuhl, Greg

doi:10.1016/j.ijrmms.2010.03.002

Cited by 52 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Free planes act as an external condition of the instability of rock blocks. External boundaries are defined jointly by the two types of planes (Shi 1988;González-Palacio et al 2005;Menéndez-Díaz et al 2009;Zhang and Wu 2007;Yu et al 2005;Elmouttie et al 2010).…”

Section: Plane and Half-spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Study on a General Cutting Algorithm of Complex Blocks

Yuan

Zhao

2015

Geotech Geol Eng

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Rock block is the key research object of underground cavern and slope as well as foundation engineering. Block theory is one of the critical methods of stability analysis in rock mechanics. Based on the classical block theory, in this study the essential concepts of block is extended firstly to include both intersections and unions of half-spaces. After that, a unified and generalized symbolic representation method was proposed based on three classical methods of representation for convex blocks. A symbol i in the middle of two notations of face half-spaces suggests intersection of the two half-spaces while a symbol u suggests union of the two half-spaces. After that, the algorithm of successive cutting of remaining block is proposed. A non-convex block can be cut into a number of convex blocks connected only by the cutting planes. The shape and size of the non-convex block can therefore be obtained. Comparative study was carried out on a practical example. Compared to the conventional method, the efficiency of the proposed method is improved significantly.

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Section: Plane and Half-spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Study on a General Cutting Algorithm of Complex Blocks

Yuan

Zhao

2015

Geotech Geol Eng

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“…The third and fourth simplifications are related and impose critical limits on the ability of a modeler to represent jointed rock masses found in nature since such rock masses consist of irregular rock blocks or concave polyhedra. The polyhedral modeler utilized in this paper represents an evolution of modelers outlined by Lin et al (1987); Jing and Stephansson (1994); Jing (2000); Lu (2002) and is described in detail in Elmouttie et al (2010). In brief, the algorithm accepts a polygon 'soup' as input (such as that defined by a DFN) and detects all vertices, edges and faces resulting from mutual intersections of the polygons or triangulated surfaces.…”

Section: Polyhedral Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…tunnels). Details on the techniques used to address these and other issues are discussed in Elmouttie et al (2010). The polyhedra can be concave and contain arbitrary numbers of facets.…”

Section: Polyhedral Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Method to Estimate In Situ Block Size Distribution

Elmouttie

Poropat

2011

Rock Mech Rock Eng

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This paper presents a new technique for estimating the in situ block size distribution in a jointed rock mass. The technique is based on Monte Carlo simulations using more realistic fracture geometry as its input compared to other block size estimation methods described in the literature. This geometry represents fractures as either polygons or triangulated surfaces and therefore models persistence and truncation of fractures accurately. Persistence has been shown to be critically important for the accurate prediction of block size and shape. We show that for rock masses with relatively small discontinuities, the results of our predictions differ markedly from previous methods which over-predict fragmentation.

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“…Maerz and Germain (1996) used a software package to study in situ block size distribution for three sets of persistent joint scenarios. The representation of concave and convex polyhedron rock blocks was identified by the topological properties of 3D blocks (Lin et al 1987;Lu 2002;Elmouttie et al 2010) by a 3D model based on the Monte Carlo simulation technique for predicting in situ the size distribution of fragments (Wang et al 2003). The complex fracture system was simulated using a discrete fracture network (DFN) approach with the behaviour of rock fractures (Jing and Stephansson 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

2D visual characterisation of wedge failure types and locations on rock slopes

Turanboy

2016

Environ Earth Sci

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This paper presents an easy and effective methodology that includes several submodels for the visual characterisation of the wedge structures, locations, and densities of all faced in situ polyhedral rock blocks on rock slope surfaces. A series of linear equations and classifying processes was derived to define the natural wedge blocks according to their basic boundary elements, specifically their edges, corners, and angles. In the developed model, wedge structures can be selected by a filtering process from the generated data set, which was recorded by using the scan-line technique. The study defines the intersection points between discontinuity traces on free surfaces. Kernel density estimation, a clustering tool, was used to display the density of 2D intersection points on the free surfaces of a rock slope. The developed methodology will help reduce rock structure complexity for many assessments related to rock mass applications, such as slope stability. The methodology was sampled on an experimental highway wall, and the results were consistent.

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Polyhedral modelling of rock mass structure

Cited by 52 publications

References 10 publications

Study on a General Cutting Algorithm of Complex Blocks

Study on a General Cutting Algorithm of Complex Blocks

A Method to Estimate In Situ Block Size Distribution

2D visual characterisation of wedge failure types and locations on rock slopes

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