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In geotechnical engineering, rock mass plasticity is the study of the response of rocks to loads beyond the elastic limit. Historically, conventional wisdom has it that rock is brittle and fails by fracture, while plasticity (irreversible deformation without fracture) is identified with ductile materials such as metals. In field-scale rock masses, structural discontinuities exist in the rock indicating that failure has taken place. Since the rock has not fallen apart, contrary to expectation of brittle behavior, clearly elasticity theory is not the last word. [1]
Theoretically, the concept of rock plasticity is based on soil plasticity which is different from metal plasticity. In metal plasticity, for example in steel, the size of a dislocation is sub-grain size while for soil it is the relative movement of microscopic grains. The theory of soil plasticity was developed in the 1960s at Rice University to provide for inelastic effects not observed in metals. Typical behaviors observed in rocks include strain softening, perfect plasticity, and work hardening.
Application of continuum theory is possible in jointed rocks because of the continuity of tractions across joints even through displacements may be discontinuous. The difference between an aggregate with joints and a continuous solid is in the type of constitutive law and the values of constitutive parameters.
Experiments are usually carried out with the intention of characterizing the mechanical behavior of rock in terms of rock strength. The strength is the limit to elastic behavior and delineates the regions where plasticity theory is applicable. Laboratory tests for characterizing rock plasticity fall into four overlapping categories: confining pressure tests, pore pressure or effective stress tests, temperature-dependent tests, and strain rate-dependent tests. Plastic behavior has been observed in rocks using all these techniques since the early 1900s. [2]
The Boudinage experiments [3] show that localized plasticity is observed in certain rock specimens that have failed in shear. Other examples of rock displaying plasticity can be seen in the work of Cheatham and Gnirk. [4] Test using compression and tension show necking of rock specimens while tests using wedge penetration show lip formation. The tests carried out by Robertson [5] show plasticity occurring at high confining pressures. Similar results are observable in the experimental work carried out by Handin and Hager, [6] Paterson, [7] and Mogi. [8] From these results it appears that the transition from elastic to plastic behavior may also indicate the transition from softening to hardening. More evidence is presented by Robinson [9] and Schwartz. [10] It is observed that the higher the confining pressure, the greater the ductility observed. However, the strain to rupture remains roughly the same at around 1.
The effect of temperature on rock plasticity has been explored by several teams of researchers. [11] It is observed that the peak stress decreases with temperature. Extension tests (with confining pressure greater than the compressive stress) show that the intermediate principal stress as well as the strain rate has an effect on the strength. The experiments on the effect of strain rate by Serdengecti and Boozer [12] show that increasing the strain rate makes rock stronger but also makes it appear more brittle. Thus dynamic loading may actually cause the strength of the rock to increase substantially. Increase in temperature appears to increase the rate effect in the plastic behavior of rocks.
After these early explorations in the plastic behavior of rocks, a significant amount of research has been carried out on the subject, primarily by the petroleum industry. From the accumulated evidence, it is clear that rock does exhibit remarkable plasticity under certain conditions and the application of a plasticity theory to rock is appropriate.
The equations that govern the deformation of jointed rocks are the same as those used to describe the motion of a continuum: [13]
where is the mass density, is the material time derivative of , is the particle velocity, is the particle displacement, is the material time derivative of , is the Cauchy stress tensor, is the body force density, is the internal energy per unit mass, is the material time derivative of , is the heat flux vector, is an energy source per unit mass, is the location of the point in the deformed configuration, and t is the time.
In addition to the balance equations, initial conditions, boundary conditions, and constitutive models are needed for a problem to be well-posed. For bodies with internal discontinuities such as jointed rock, the balance of linear momentum is more conveniently expressed in the integral form, also called the principle of virtual work:
where represents the volume of the body and is its surface (including any internal discontinuities), is an admissible variation that satisfies the displacement (or velocity) boundary conditions, the divergence theorem has been used to eliminate derivatives of the stress tensor, and are surface tractions on the surfaces . The jump conditions across stationary internal stress discontinuities require that the tractions across these surfaces be continuous, i.e.,
where are the stresses in the sub-bodies , and is the normal to the surface of discontinuity.
For small strains, the kinematic quantity that is used to describe rock mechanics is the small strain tensor If temperature effects are ignored, four types of constitutive relations are typically used to describe small strain deformations of rocks. These relations encompass elastic, plastic, viscoelastic, and viscoplastic behavior and have the following forms:
A failure criterion or yield surface for the rock may then be expressed in the general form
Typical constitutive relations for rocks assume that the deformation process is isothermal, the material is isotropic, quasi-linear, and homogenous and material properties do not depend upon position at the start of the deformation process, that there is no viscous effect and therefore no intrinsic time scale, that the failure criterion is rate-independent, and that there is no size effect. However, these assumptions are made only to simplify analysis and should be abandoned if necessary for a particular problem.
Design of mining and civil structures in rock typically involves a failure criterion that is cohesive-frictional. The failure criterion is used to determine whether a state of stress in the rock will lead to inelastic behavior, including brittle failure. For rocks under high hydrostatic stresses, brittle failure is preceded by plastic deformation and the failure criterion is used to determine the onset of plastic deformation. Typically, perfect plasticity is assumed beyond the yield point. However strain hardening and softening relations with nonlocal inelasticity and damage have also been used. Failure criteria and yield surfaces are also often augmented with a cap to avoid unphysical situations where extreme hydrostatic stress states do not lead to failure or plastic deformation.
Two widely used yield surfaces/failure criteria for rocks are the Mohr-Coulomb model and the Drucker-Prager model. The Hoek–Brown failure criterion is also used, notwithstanding the serious consistency problem with the model. The defining feature of these models is that tensile failure is predicted at low stresses. On the other hand, as the stress state becomes increasingly compressive, failure and yield requires higher and higher values of stress.
The governing equations, constitutive models, and yield surfaces discussed above are not sufficient if we are to compute the stresses and displacements in a rock body that is undergoing plastic deformation. An additional kinematic assumption is needed, i.e., that the strain in the body can be decomposed additively (or multiplicatively in some cases) into an elastic part and a plastic part. The elastic part of the strain can be computed from a linear elastic constitutive model. However, determination of the plastic part of the strain requires a flow rule and a hardening model.
Typical flow plasticity theories (for small deformation perfect plasticity or hardening plasticity) are developed on the basis on the following requirements:
The above requirements can be expressed in three dimensions as follows.
In metal plasticity, the assumption that the plastic strain increment and deviatoric stress tensor have the same principal directions is encapsulated in a relation called the flow rule. Rock plasticity theories also use a similar concept except that the requirement of pressure-dependence of the yield surface requires a relaxation of the above assumption. Instead, it is typically assumed that the plastic strain increment and the normal to the pressure-dependent yield surface have the same direction, i.e.,
where is a hardening parameter. This form of the flow rule is called an associated flow rule and the assumption of co-directionality is called the normality condition. The function is also called a plastic potential.
The above flow rule is easily justified for perfectly plastic deformations for which when , i.e., the yield surface remains constant under increasing plastic deformation. This implies that the increment of elastic strain is also zero, , because of Hooke's law. Therefore,
Hence, both the normal to the yield surface and the plastic strain tensor are perpendicular to the stress tensor and must have the same direction.
For a work hardening material, the yield surface can expand with increasing stress. We assume Drucker's second stability postulate which states that for an infinitesimal stress cycle this plastic work is positive, i.e.,
The above quantity is equal to zero for purely elastic cycles. Examination of the work done over a cycle of plastic loading-unloading can be used to justify the validity of the associated flow rule. [14]
The Prager consistency condition is needed to close the set of constitutive equations and to eliminate the unknown parameter from the system of equations. The consistency condition states that at yield because , and hence
In continuum mechanics, the infinitesimal strain theory is a mathematical approach to the description of the deformation of a solid body in which the displacements of the material particles are assumed to be much smaller than any relevant dimension of the body; so that its geometry and the constitutive properties of the material at each point of space can be assumed to be unchanged by the deformation.
In physics, Hooke's law is an empirical law which states that the force needed to extend or compress a spring by some distance scales linearly with respect to that distance—that is, Fs = kx, where k is a constant factor characteristic of the spring, and x is small compared to the total possible deformation of the spring. The law is named after 17th-century British physicist Robert Hooke. He first stated the law in 1676 as a Latin anagram. He published the solution of his anagram in 1678 as: ut tensio, sic vis. Hooke states in the 1678 work that he was aware of the law since 1660.
In engineering, deformation may be elastic or plastic. If the deformation is negligible, the object is said to be rigid.
In physics and materials science, elasticity is the ability of a body to resist a distorting influence and to return to its original size and shape when that influence or force is removed. Solid objects will deform when adequate loads are applied to them; if the material is elastic, the object will return to its initial shape and size after removal. This is in contrast to plasticity, in which the object fails to do so and instead remains in its deformed state.
Linear elasticity is a mathematical model as to how solid objects deform and become internally stressed by prescribed loading conditions. It is a simplification of the more general nonlinear theory of elasticity and a branch of continuum mechanics.
A Newtonian fluid is a fluid in which the viscous stresses arising from its flow are at every point linearly correlated to the local strain rate — the rate of change of its deformation over time. Stresses are proportional to the rate of change of the fluid's velocity vector.
In materials science and continuum mechanics, viscoelasticity is the property of materials that exhibit both viscous and elastic characteristics when undergoing deformation. Viscous materials, like water, resist both shear flow and strain linearly with time when a stress is applied. Elastic materials strain when stretched and immediately return to their original state once the stress is removed.
In mechanics, virtual work arises in the application of the principle of least action to the study of forces and movement of a mechanical system. The work of a force acting on a particle as it moves along a displacement is different for different displacements. Among all the possible displacements that a particle may follow, called virtual displacements, one will minimize the action. This displacement is therefore the displacement followed by the particle according to the principle of least action.
The work of a force on a particle along a virtual displacement is known as the virtual work.
A neo-Hookean solid is a hyperelastic material model, similar to Hooke's law, that can be used for predicting the nonlinear stress–strain behavior of materials undergoing large deformations. The model was proposed by Ronald Rivlin in 1948 using invariants, though Mooney had already described a version in stretch form in 1940, and Wall had noted the equivalence in shear with the Hooke model in 1942.
The Maxwell stress tensor is a symmetric second-order tensor in three dimensions that is used in classical electromagnetism to represent the interaction between electromagnetic forces and mechanical momentum. In simple situations, such as a point charge moving freely in a homogeneous magnetic field, it is easy to calculate the forces on the charge from the Lorentz force law. When the situation becomes more complicated, this ordinary procedure can become impractically difficult, with equations spanning multiple lines. It is therefore convenient to collect many of these terms in the Maxwell stress tensor, and to use tensor arithmetic to find the answer to the problem at hand.
Elastic energy is the mechanical potential energy stored in the configuration of a material or physical system as it is subjected to elastic deformation by work performed upon it. Elastic energy occurs when objects are impermanently compressed, stretched or generally deformed in any manner. Elasticity theory primarily develops formalisms for the mechanics of solid bodies and materials. The elastic potential energy equation is used in calculations of positions of mechanical equilibrium. The energy is potential as it will be converted into other forms of energy, such as kinetic energy and sound energy, when the object is allowed to return to its original shape (reformation) by its elasticity.
The J-integral represents a way to calculate the strain energy release rate, or work (energy) per unit fracture surface area, in a material. The theoretical concept of J-integral was developed in 1967 by G. P. Cherepanov and independently in 1968 by James R. Rice, who showed that an energetic contour path integral was independent of the path around a crack.
A hyperelastic or Green elastic material is a type of constitutive model for ideally elastic material for which the stress–strain relationship derives from a strain energy density function. The hyperelastic material is a special case of a Cauchy elastic material.
A strain energy density function or stored energy density function is a scalar-valued function that relates the strain energy density of a material to the deformation gradient.
In continuum mechanics, Lamé parameters are two material-dependent quantities denoted by λ and μ that arise in strain-stress relationships. In general, λ and μ are individually referred to as Lamé's first parameter and Lamé's second parameter, respectively. Other names are sometimes employed for one or both parameters, depending on context. For example, the parameter μ is referred to in fluid dynamics as the dynamic viscosity of a fluid ; whereas in the context of elasticity, μ is called the shear modulus, and is sometimes denoted by G instead of μ. Typically the notation G is seen paired with the use of Young's modulus E, and the notation μ is paired with the use of λ.
Viscoplasticity is a theory in continuum mechanics that describes the rate-dependent inelastic behavior of solids. Rate-dependence in this context means that the deformation of the material depends on the rate at which loads are applied. The inelastic behavior that is the subject of viscoplasticity is plastic deformation which means that the material undergoes unrecoverable deformations when a load level is reached. Rate-dependent plasticity is important for transient plasticity calculations. The main difference between rate-independent plastic and viscoplastic material models is that the latter exhibit not only permanent deformations after the application of loads but continue to undergo a creep flow as a function of time under the influence of the applied load.
In continuum mechanics, objective stress rates are time derivatives of stress that do not depend on the frame of reference. Many constitutive equations are designed in the form of a relation between a stress-rate and a strain-rate. The mechanical response of a material should not depend on the frame of reference. In other words, material constitutive equations should be frame-indifferent (objective). If the stress and strain measures are material quantities then objectivity is automatically satisfied. However, if the quantities are spatial, then the objectivity of the stress-rate is not guaranteed even if the strain-rate is objective.
In continuum mechanics, a hypoelastic material is an elastic material that has a constitutive model independent of finite strain measures except in the linearized case. Hypoelastic material models are distinct from hyperelastic material models in that, except under special circumstances, they cannot be derived from a strain energy density function.
Flow plasticity is a solid mechanics theory that is used to describe the plastic behavior of materials. Flow plasticity theories are characterized by the assumption that a flow rule exists that can be used to determine the amount of plastic deformation in the material.
The microplane model, conceived in 1984, is a material constitutive model for progressive softening damage. Its advantage over the classical tensorial constitutive models is that it can capture the oriented nature of damage such as tensile cracking, slip, friction, and compression splitting, as well as the orientation of fiber reinforcement. Another advantage is that the anisotropy of materials such as gas shale or fiber composites can be effectively represented. To prevent unstable strain localization, this model must be used in combination with some nonlocal continuum formulation. Prior to 2000, these advantages were outweighed by greater computational demands of the material subroutine, but thanks to huge increase of computer power, the microplane model is now routinely used in computer programs, even with tens of millions of finite elements.