Key Engineering Materials Vols. 261-263

Abstract: Lightweight composite pressure vessels were designed with thin metallic and plastic liners. This paper discusses the structural design, the fabrication, and the experiment of the composite pressure vessels with metallic and plastic liners. Both liners were non-load sharing types, therefore only the composite sustained an internal pressure. The liner provided a gas seal. The materials of the liners were Al 6061 and CLPE (cross linked polyethylene) each. The composite pressure vessels were winded using T700 carbon/epoxy on the liners. The multiple cure cycles prevented the aluminum liner from losing a circular shape and the concentrated force at the metallic boss was spread to the composite fiber by the boss design. In case of the plastic liner, the boss design considered that CLPE had no adhesive property. Although the plastic liner has the advantage for the elongation, some environmental tests for temperature and vibration effects are needed in order to use in space applications.

Abstract: It has long been recognized that the strength of brittle rocks decreases with the grain size. However, very few systematic investigation of this phenomenon has been made using numerical method. This paper presents the results of a numerical simulation using the Rock Failure Process Analysis code (RFPA2D) to investigate the effects of grain size on the uniaxial compressive strength and the failure behavior of Yuen Long marble. The Weibull distribution with two parameters (m that characterizes the strength heterogeneity, and σ0 that corresponds to the mean strength of an element) selected based on micromechanical basis is used in the RFPA2D code for simulation. The simulated stress-strain curves of Yuen Long marbles with different grain sizes under uniaxial compressive condition agrees well with the experimental study. The progressive failure process was captured in the numerical simulations. Our simulations also reproduced the influence of grain size, with strength scaling approximately with the inverse square root of grain size, which is in agreement with the previous experimental study.

Abstract: Brazilian test is a standardized test for measuring indirect tensile strength of rock and concrete disc (or cylinder). Similar test called indirect tensile test has also been used for other geomaterials. Although splitting of the disc into two halves is the expected failure mode, other rupture modes had also been observed. More importantly, the splitting tensile strength of rock can vary significantly with the specimen geometry and loading condition. In this study, a numerical code called RFPA2D (abbreviated from Rock Failure Process Analysis) is used to simulate the failure process of disc and ring specimens subject to Brazilian test. The failure patterns and splitting tensile strengths of specimens with different size and loading-strip-width are simulated and compared with existing experimental results. In addition, two distinct failure patterns observed in ring tests have been simulated using RFPA2D and thus this verifies the applicability of RFPA2D in simulating rock failure process under static loads.

Abstract: Multi-crack problems are deeply involved in rock-like material and rock engineering. In order to study the influences of lateral stress and inclined crack angle on the failure load of the multi-cracked body, uniaxial and biaxial compression fracture tests are conducted on plate specimens with regular distributed multi-cracks. The stress distribution and the stress intensity factors KI and KII for every crack tips of the specimens are calculated by FEM. The experiment revealed that the failure load of the multi-cracked specimens increase obviously with the increase of the lateral pressure σ2 and the inclined crack angle α. And the multi-cracked specimens will hardly initiate propagation under equal biaxial compression. Analyses have been shown that these can be explained by the variation of KII with the σ2 and the α.

Abstract: In this paper, theoretical constitutive model, numerical tool, viz., RFPA code and servo-type testing machine, viz., RMT-150B rock testing systems were briefly described, respectively. Then, based on theoretical analysis, numerical simulation and experimental tests for rock specimens in uniaxial compression, the relations and differences between theoretical, numerical and experimental results, especially the complete stress-strain curves, were contrastively analyzed and investigated. The reason for these relations and differences among results was also proposed in this paper.

Abstract: The earth dam type is widely used in the dam engineering. According to the investigation, the earth dam would suffer problems after running 100 to 200 years in good filling quality. However, in China, for many reasons, it would only need 30 to 40 years when problems occur. This essay study the problems about weak stress of earth dam by the site investigations, theoretic analysis and finite element analysis and put forward the theory of earth dam aging induced by stress weakening.

Abstract: In light of the open deformation of joints in the middle isolated pier of the permanent shiplocks of Three Gorges Project(TGP), a typically simplified joint model is set up based on the geological conditions and the crack investigation. The method of joint interface element is used to analyze the joint open deformation and study the characteristic of open joints. The results show that the open deformation and the open length of joints are directly related to their occurrence and geometrical character.

Abstract: Three-dimensional hydro-mechanical coupling analyses have been conducted on the water-tight structure of the cofferdam for both intake and outlet of Taian pumped storage power station, located in Shandong Province of China. In addition, the effects of excavation on the cofferdam and foundation slopes were also studied by using the 3D FLAC. The calculation results show that the central core of high-pressure grouting has a prefect anti-seepage effect and therefore is able to strengthen the stability of the cofferdam and foundation slopes. The excavation process has only some local effects on the cofferdam and does not greatly affect the global stability of the cofferdam. Therefore, no failure takes place around slope toes. The results show that the width of platform left on the excavation side is reasonable.

Abstract: This present paper adopts a constitutive model for elastic damage of intermittently jointed rock mass, damage-evolution equations and a supporting model of damaged rock-bolt bar(DRBB) element to simulate effect of reinforcement. The results have indicated that the above method well describes the progressive failure process of the surrounding rock mass and the anchorage effect. The theoretical achievements are of referential value to designers.

Abstract: This study is to evaluate the effect of the heterogeneity on the failure processes and strength characterization of brittle rock containing the single pre-existing crack (or flaw) under uniaxial compression loadings. The numerical simulation reproduces the evolution of the stress and strain fields in flaw propagation process, the mode of acoustic emission related to the heterogeneity of rock and the phenomenon related to discontinuous. It is shown that the lower the value of the homogeneous index, the more influence of local variation on the propagation process of the pre-existing flaw, and there occurs more randomly distributed microfractures throughout the specimen. Studying the details of macrofracture formation in relatively homogeneous specimens, it is interesting to find that there exists a 'constant jump' propagation pattern of the wing crack, which is responsible for the formation of the pre-existing flaw. The numerical results also demonstrate that the stress-strain relation and strength characterization depends strongly on the heterogeneity of the specimen. The heterogeneous rock has a gentler post-peak behavior and lower strength, while the more homogeneous specimen has a higher strength, accordingly, the curve becomes more linear and the strength loss is also rapidly.