A constitutive model for rock joints formulation and numerical implementation

1 Title, abstract

An elastoplastic constitutive law for describing the three-dimensional mechanical behaviour of rock joints is presented. The model is intended for use in numerical analysis and is formulated with sufficient flexibility so that it can reproduce a wide range of observed joint stress-strain behaviour. An hyperbolic failure criterion is shown to fit well reported joint strength data and the same type of function is adopted to define the family of yield surfaces. The evolution of hardening/softening is controlled by the total length of the plastic tangential strain path. Locking behaviour under normal loading and dilatancy varying with stress and strain level are also accounted for. Examples of application of the model to the reproduction of test results are presented. The model can be generalized to include anisotropy effects. Finally, some aspects of the procedures used in the numerical implementation of the constituive law are described.