Mechanical Model for Predicting Closure Behavior of Rock Joints Under Normal Stress

Excerpt

The mechanical properties of rock mass are mainly governed by the joints which it contains. As a consequence, over the past decades, many researchers have focused on the mechanical properties of rock joints and numerous applications could benefit from this, such as geo-thermy, petroleum reservoirs, as well as underground disposal of high-level radioactive wastes and CO₂. This paper focuses on the closure deformation of rock joints under compressive loading and this is the first step in the direction of a more global hydro-mechanical study of joint. Many models have been developed to describe the mechanical behavior of a joint under normal stress and which can be classified into three categories: empirical model, numerical model, and theoretical model. …