Study on damage bifurcation and instability of rock-like materials

ABSTRACT itical bifurcation orientation and its corresponding hardening modulus for rock-like geomaterials are derived by considering the effect of stiffness degradation and volumetric dilatancy under the assumption of isotropic damage. The dependency of the localized orientation on the degree of damage and initial Poissonʹs ratio of rock is examined and the bifurcation behavior of the uniaxial compression sample under the plane-stress condition is compared with that under plane-strain condition. It is shown that the localization orientation angle intimately depends on both the initial Poissonʹs ratio and degree of damage for the rock sample under the uniaxial compression condition. As the initial Poissonʹs ratio or degree of damage increases, the orientation angle of the plane on which localization tends to be initiated gets to decrease. At the same time, the localization orientation angle of a rock sample under the plane-stress condition is larger than that under the plane-strain condition.