Abstract
Deformation behavior of rockmass is strongly affected by the geometrical and mechanical properties of discontinuities, i. e. joint. Equivalent Volume Defect Method (EVDM) is one of useful methods to estimate the effective compliance of the material which contains distributed cracks. However, the application of EVDM is limited in the two dimensional problem.
In this paper, EVDM is extended, as it can apply to the three dimensional deformation analysis of jointed rock. Rock joints are assumed to be distributed circular disk cracks. The mechanical behavior of a circular disk crack has been theoretically analyzed. Equivalent Volume Defect (EVD) for a circular disk crack is formulated in two cases, i. e, crack is open or closed. It is shown that the expression of EVD for cracks can be simplified in the case of random distributed cracks. By comparing the results obtained by the proposed method to those by theoretical analysis, it is confirmed that the proposed method gives a good approximation of three dimensional and anisotropic elasticity of the material containing distributed cracks.
