Testing and modeling of the mechanical behavior of dolomite in the Wudongde hydropower plant

ABSTRACT

In order to understand the mechanical behaviours of the surrounding rocks in the underground caverns of the Wudongde hydropower plant, triaxial tests are performed on a type of dolomite. It is revealed that damage induced by crack development is the main factor controlling the nonlinear plastic deformation and failure behaviour of the dolomite in both pre- and post-peak regimes. Based on this understanding, a coupled elastoplastic damage model is developed for capturing the dolomite’s mechanical behaviours. In the model, the effects of plasticity and damage on rocks is described by introducing plastic hardening and damage softening commonly in the plastic yield surface. Which are both derived from a suitable Helmholtz free energy function. The model is used to simulate the triaxial tests. Comparisons between test results and the numerical modelling show that the developed model is capable of describing the macro mechanical behaviours of the Wudongde dolomite.

KEYWORDS:

• Wudongde dolomite
• triaxial test
• plasticity
• damage
• constitutive model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work presented in this paper was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 11172090, 51479049, 51209075 and 11272113) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK2012809).