Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Holt, R.M .
NTNU, Trondheim, Norway and SINTEF Petroleum Research, Trondheim, Norway
Lavrov, A.
SINTEF Petroleum Research, Trondheim, Norway
Mas Ivars, D.
Itasca Consultants AB, Stockholm, Sweden
Copyright 2015 ARMA, American Rock Mechanics Association
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 49th US Rock Mechanics / Geomechanics Symposium held in San Francisco, CA, USA, 28 June- 1
July 2015.
This paper was selected for presentation at the symposium by an ARMA Technical Program Committee based on a technical and critical review of
the paper by a minimum of two technical reviewers. The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position of ARMA, its officers, or
members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper for commercial purposes without the written consent of ARMA is
prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 200 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract
must contain conspicuous acknowledgement of where and by whom the paper was presented.
ABSTRACT:
The Brazilian Test was modeled with FLAC to investigate the effect of loading angle on stress distribution and failure mechanisms
in homogeneous and heterogeneous rock samples. The model was first calibrated to data of a Standard Brazilian test of a PMMA
sample, found in the literature. Then several numerical Brazilian tests were performed using virtual materials with different
deformability. The numerical results indicated that the loading angle (i.e. contact length between the jaw and the disc) is not
constant in the Standard Brazilian test and changes depending on the amount of applied load and the deformability of the disc. This
means that the contact length will be larger for materials with higher tensile strength and lower Youngs modulus. The contact
length affects the distribution of both tensile and compressive stresses in the disc. Therefore, it can influence the failure mechanism
of the disc. If the contact length is low, probability of shear failure increases close to the loading region, and if it is high, tensile
failure is more probable at the center of the disc.
Furthermore, Uniaxial Tensile (UT), Standard Brazilian (SB) and Brazilian tests with constant loading angle of 300 (CLAB) were
simulated. Heterogeneities were introduced as inclusions with their tensile strength and Young's modulus randomly selected from a
normal distribution with different standard deviations. The analysis indicated that as the standard deviation of the Young's modulus
and tensile strength distribution increases, the recorded peak load and peak tensile strength decreases for the three tensile test
configurations. However, UT is much more sensitive to the variability of tensile strength than of Young's modulus. In contrast, the
SB and CLAB tests indicated more sensitivity to Young's modulus variability.
1. INTRODUCTION
Direct measurement of rock tensile strength has
been a challenge for engineers. Since it is
practically easy and cheap to perform, Brazilian test
has been performed extensively to obtain tensile
strength of rocks instead. According to Griffith
criterion, Brazilian test is valid when the tensile
fracture initiates at the center of the testing disc.
However, some researchers have questioned its
validity in determining the tensile strength of rocks.
According to Fairhurst [1] failure may occur away
from the center of the test disc for small angles of
loading contact area and the calculated tensile
MODELING
OF
BRAZILIAN
2.1
Stress
SB
UT
Table 1. Different testing scenarios to investigate the effect of rock stiffness in presence of heterogeneity in SB test
E (GPa) TSR
ER
Th (MPa)
r/R
90
0%
0%
8582
4.69
90
10%
0%
4.23
0.75
8578
4.69
90
15%
0%
0.75
8578
4.69
90
20%
0%
3.76
0.75
8173
4.47
90
25%
0%
3.53
0.75
7522
4.12
90
25% 25%
3.53
0.75
H'
7890
4.33
67.5
25% 25%
3.53
0.75
H'
7927
4.35
45
25% 50%
3.53
0.75
H'
6344
3.47
18
25% 80%
3.53
0.75
H'
5084
2.78
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
15
15
15
15
13.5
3
7.5
0%
25%
25%
35%
25%
25%
25%
4.7
3.53
3.53
3.06
3.53
3.53
3.53
0.75
0.75
0.75
0.75
0.75
0.75
0.75
C
C
C
H
C
H'
H'
8563
8563
8563
7478
8562
5387
6940
4.69
4.69
4.69
4.1
4.69
2.96
3.81
0%
0%
25%
0%
25%
80%
50%
C: disc center
H: Heterogeneity/inclusion
H': In rock in vicinity of the inclusion
REFERENCES
1. C. Fairhurst 1964. On the validity of the Brazilian test for
brittle materials. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Geomech. Abstr.
1:4,535546.
2. Hudson, J.A., E.T. Brown and F. Rummel.1972. The
controlled failure of rock discs and rings loaded in diametral
compression. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Geomech. Abstr.
9:2, 241248.
3. Li D. and L.N.Y. Wong. 2013. The Brazilian Disc Test for
Rock Mechanics Applications: Review and New Insights. J.
Rock Mech. Rock Eng.46:2, 269-287
4. Y. Yu. 2005. Questioning the validity of the Brazilian test
for determining tensile strength of rocks. Chin. J. Rock Mech.
Eng. 24:7, 11501157 (in Chinese).
5. Pandey, P. and D.P. Singh. 1986. Deformation of a rock in
different tensile tests. Eng. Geol. 22:3, 281292.