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Rock fracture under static stress conditions

A knowledge of the strength of a material is an essential prerequisite to the successful design of a structure in that material. Consequently, in designing deep level mining excavations and large civil engineering structures, an understanding of the mechanics of rock fracture, particularly under com...

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Main Author: Hoek, Evert
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Civil Engineering 2016
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access_status_str Open Access
author Hoek, Evert
author_browse Hoek, Evert
author_facet Hoek, Evert
author_sort Hoek, Evert
collection Thesis
description A knowledge of the strength of a material is an essential prerequisite to the successful design of a structure in that material. Consequently, in designing deep level mining excavations and large civil engineering structures, an understanding of the mechanics of rock fracture, particularly under compressive stress conditions, is of fundamental importance. This thesis contains details of an investigation into the applicability of Griffith's brittle fracture theory, modified to account for the effects of crack closure in compression, to the prediction of rock fracture behaviour. It is shown that this theory provides a reliable basis for the analysis of hard rock fracture under static stress conditions. The application of the Griffith's theory to the prediction of rock fracture initiation and propagation in a complex stress field is illustrated by means of a detailed analysis of the behaviour of the rock around a circular hole in a biaxial stress field. While this study is primarily concerned with rock fracture problems associated with deep level mining, it is believed that the general principles are equally useful in the analysis of rock and concrete fracture problems encountered in civil engineering.
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id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22262
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:58.458Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher Department of Civil Engineering
publisherStr Department of Civil Engineering
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22262 Rock fracture under static stress conditions Hoek, Evert Civil Engineering A knowledge of the strength of a material is an essential prerequisite to the successful design of a structure in that material. Consequently, in designing deep level mining excavations and large civil engineering structures, an understanding of the mechanics of rock fracture, particularly under compressive stress conditions, is of fundamental importance. This thesis contains details of an investigation into the applicability of Griffith's brittle fracture theory, modified to account for the effects of crack closure in compression, to the prediction of rock fracture behaviour. It is shown that this theory provides a reliable basis for the analysis of hard rock fracture under static stress conditions. The application of the Griffith's theory to the prediction of rock fracture initiation and propagation in a complex stress field is illustrated by means of a detailed analysis of the behaviour of the rock around a circular hole in a biaxial stress field. While this study is primarily concerned with rock fracture problems associated with deep level mining, it is believed that the general principles are equally useful in the analysis of rock and concrete fracture problems encountered in civil engineering. 2016-10-24T03:44:38Z 2016-10-24T03:44:38Z 1965 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22262 eng application/pdf Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Civil Engineering
Hoek, Evert
Rock fracture under static stress conditions
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Rock fracture under static stress conditions
title_full Rock fracture under static stress conditions
title_fullStr Rock fracture under static stress conditions
title_full_unstemmed Rock fracture under static stress conditions
title_short Rock fracture under static stress conditions
title_sort rock fracture under static stress conditions
topic Civil Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22262
work_keys_str_mv AT hoekevert rockfractureunderstaticstressconditions