Realistic rock mass modelling and its engineering applications

[Truncated] Rock masses in nature contain various discontinuities of different forms. These discontinuities play a dominant role in the determination of the mechanical behaviours of rock masses. Due to the presence of the discontinuities, there exist a number of bottlenecks in order to realistically model the deformation and stability of a rock mass when a numerical approach is adopted. For example, a rock mass containing a discrete fracture network should be numerically represented by a three dimensional model, as a two dimensional model is not possible to give out accurate deformation or stability of a discrete three-dimensional block system. There are also various uncertainties related to the discontinuities. The fracture networks in rock masses are stochastic and a realistic numerical simulation should be able to consider the randomness of the discontinuity size, shape and distribution. Besides, numerical simulation of the deformation and stability of such a discrete rock mass system is extremely time consuming, especially when an open-close iteration algorithm is used to all the contacts of the three-dimensional blocks. An efficient numerical tool with a realistic computational cost when simulating a discrete rock mass system is highly desired.
This thesis intends to overcome the obstacles in realistically modelling the stability and deformation of discontinuous rock masses. A three-dimensional robust geological modelling tool is developed to generate blocky rock masses. It can deal with planar or non-planar, finite or infinite, convex or concave discontinuities. To ensure robustness, careful tolerance management, adoption of robust algorithms and other techniques have been implemented to make the developed program reliable. Measures such as usage of compact data structure, avoidance of unnecessary calculations are also taken to improve efficiency. In addition, several methods are used to verify the developed algorithm.