Modeling of complex geological rock mixtures under triaxial testing conditions

N. Coli, D. Boldini & A. Bandini DICAM/Department of Civil, Environmental and Material Engineering. University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy D. S. Lopes IDMEC/Instituto Superior Tcnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract: Complex geological mixtures of rock inclusions randomly distributed in a weaker matrix can raise challenging issues for a proper geomechanical characterization. These materials, also referred as bimrocks, are widespread all around the world and can be recognized in a vast range of geological formations. Although most of these formations are assumed to be controlled by the matrix mechanical properties, several studies, instead, showed that the overall behavior is strongly influenced by the presence of the rock fragments and, in particular, by their volumetric content. In the present study, the overall mechanical behavior and strength characteristics of rock mixtures during triaxial tests were studied using a 3-D finite element. A script routine was specifically developed for the 3-D model generation. Given a specific volumetric content and preferred inclusion orientation, the routine generates cylindrical specimens with ellipsoidal inclusions. Ellipsoidal surface intersections are governed by applying an algebraic separation condition which states the contact condition between two inclusions (i.e., separated, overlapped, or overlapped at a single point). The preliminary FEM analysis on specimens with spherical inclusions indicated a marked influence of the inclusions volumetric content on the mechanical properties of the bimrock. Different behaviors were observed for welded and unwelded specimens. Further studies will focus on the effect of ellipsoidal inclusions. Theme: Laboratory testing Keywords: rock mixtures, numerical modeling, finite element method, virtual specimens, bimrock.

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INTRODUCTION

Geological formations are generally classified, from an engineering point of view, as either soils or rocks. But a large number of the geological formations commonly encountered by engineers are complex mixtures of hard-rock blocks embedded in a weaker and finer matrix (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Typical aspect of a rock mixture made up by a finer grey clay matrix and hard limestone inclusions (picture from the Santa Barbara open-pit mine, Tuscany, Italy).

In the geomechanics literature, these inhomogeneous rock mixtures are commonly referred as bimrocks (block-in-matrix-rocks) (Medley 1994, Medley & Wakabayashi 2004). The term bimrock, in fact, identifies structurally complex geological formations characterized by a fine-grained matrix which includes, in a typical blockin-matrix fabric, hard-rock fragments of variable dimensions. These complex mixtures occur globally and are originated by several geological processes (mlanges, olistostromes, fault rocks, breccias, etc.). The conventional engineering approach is to adopt the mechanical properties of the weaker matrix as representative of the entire rock mass. However, as showed by several studies (Lindquist 1994, Lindquist & Goodman 1994, Sonmez et al. 2004, Kim et al. 2004), the overall mechanical behaviour of bimrocks is governed by the interaction between the blocks and the matrix and is strongly influenced by the geometrical properties of rock inclusions, in particular by their volumetric proportion and size-distribution. Due to their complex structure, bimrocks always represent a challenging engineering problem. The contrast in strength, in fact, forces the failure surface to follow tortuous paths around the blocks, causing an increase in the overall friction angle as much as 15 to 20 degrees above that of the matrix. When block content is about 55-60%, block

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contacts appear. In this case, the interlocking of blocks may gain importance on the overall strength of bimrock. During the characterization and design stages, ignoring the presence of hard rock blocks within a softer matrix always lead to unpleasant and expensive surprises (mischaracterization, wrong interpretation of underground stratigraphy, over/undersizing of reinforcements). Most of the time such negligence leads to overconservative design solutions. Investigating the bimrock mechanical properties with the standard methods of geotechnical engineering is very difficult due to the extreme heterogeneity of the formation. As a consequence, numerical solutions could be very helpful in order to provide qualitative and quantitative insight into the complex mechanical behaviour of these formations. The research carried out at the DICAM, University of Bologna, in collaboration with IDMEC, Technical University of Lisbon, aims at investigating the bimrock mechanical characterization by means of a finite element (FEM) analysis of threedimensional virtual bimrocks. In the present paper, the first part of the research is presented. The FEM model was developed and a MATLAB routine was specifically coded for the 3-D model generation. A first series of FEM simulations have been carried out in order to validate the analysis results with data from literature of laboratory tests.
2 PROPERTIES OF BIMROCK MIXTURES

The principal feature that classifies a geological formation as a bimrocks is the strength contrast between the matrix and the rock inclusions. Lindquist (1994) suggested that the rock inclusions friction angle (expressed as tanblock) and the block Youngs modulus (Eblock ) must be at least twice those of the matrix ones. Based on the strength of the contact boundaries between the matrix and the rock inclusions, two main categories of bimrocks can be distinguished: welded and unwelded (Sonmez et al. 2009). In welded mixtures, the strength of the contact boundaries is approximately the same as the one of the matrix, whereas in unwelded mixtures the contacts suffered from high-strain deformations with a considerable decrease in strength compared to the inclusions. Typical welded bimrocks, such as volcanic ignimbrites and cemented conglomerates, are originated under high temperature and/or pressure conditions and the matrix is lithified. Unwelded bimrocks are the result of sedimentary or weathering processes characterized by a soil-like matrix. Typical unwelded bimrocks are mlanges, fault breccias and debris deposits.
2.1 Geometrical properties

Several studies indicated that the size distribution of rock inclusions follows a negative power law given by Eq. 1 (Medley 1994, Medley & Lindquist 1995, Riedmuller et al. 2001, Medley 2002, Coli et al., 2012): (I) where N is the relative frequency of fragments with a linear dimension greater than r and the exponent D is the fractal dimension. One of the most important properties of a power law distribution is the self-similarity, i.e. the invariance of fractal dimension D regardless of the scale of observation.

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Despite of the strong heterogeneity, the self-similarity makes it possible to study the mechanical properties of rock mixtures at smaller or larger scales with respect to the engineering problem under investigation, provided that the in-situ characteristics of shape, size-distribution and volumetric content of the inclusions are maintained also in the investigated specimen.
2.2 Mechanical properties

The presence of rock fragments above a critical threshold size, namely the block/matrix (B/M) threshold, deeply influences the mechanical behaviour of bimrocks (Lindquist & Goodman 1994, Sonmez at al. 2004, 2006, 2009, Xu et al. 2007, Pan et al. 2008, Coli et al. 2011). The B/M is not an absolute property of bimrocks but is related to a specific engineering scale of interest (i.e. several B/M can be identified depending on the working scale of the problem under investigation). Some rock fragments, in fact, can be so small compared to the scale of the engineering problem that they have no influence on the strength of the bimrock and they can be considered as part of the matrix itself. Medley (1994, 2002) and Medley & Lindquist (1995) proposed to estimate the B/M as 5% of Lc, where Lc is a linear dimension corresponding to a characteristic dimension of the engineering problem under investigation; it can be assumed as the average thickness of a sliding body, the size of a dam foundation, as well as the height or diameter of a laboratory specimen. Above the B/M, the presence of hard rock blocks deeply influences the mechanical behavior. In particular when the Volumetric Block Content (VBC) varies between 20% and 75%, and the block friction angle (expressed as tanblock) and the block Youngs modulus (Eblock ) are at least twice those of the matrix, the potential shear surface tends to develop in a tortuous way following the contacts between the blocks and the matrix without breaking the blocks. Different mechanical behaviors have been observed for welded and unwelded bimrocks. Unwelded bimrocks are characterized by an increase in Youngs modulus and a decrease in cohesion and uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) with the progressive increase in VBC. The increase in friction angle was related to the increase in tortuosity of the failure plane during shearing, while the decrease in cohesion to the weakness of the contact boundaries. On the contrary, as VBC increases, a general increase in cohesion and UCS has been observed for welded bimrocks. For both unwelded and welded bimrocks, the friction angle generally increases by increasing VBC.
3 NUMERICAL MODELS

In order to investigate the mechanical response of rock mixtures, a FEM approach has been adopted in this study. The model simulates virtual cylindrical specimens of both welded and unwelded bimrocks subjected to laboratory compression tests under uniaxial and triaxial conditions. The analysis was inspired by the laboratory test campaign performed by Lindquist (1994) on reconstituted specimens representing mlanges. Lindquist performed a series of compression tests on cylindrical specimens (30 mm high by 15 mm in diameter) made of a sand-cement-ash matrix with bentoniteportland ellipsoidal inclusions, randomly distributed inside the matrix (Table 1). The
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ellipsoidal inclusions ranged from lenticular, tabular, round to elongate, with a major/minor axis shape ratio of about 0.6. The size of inclusions ranged between 5% and 70% of the specimen diameter, distributed according to a negative power-law size distribution with D = -2.3. Thin films of wax were wrapped around the inclusions to simulate the weakness of the unwelded contact boundary and further films were added inside the matrix to simulate the presence of shear bands.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of the specimens used by Lindquist (1994).

[kN/m3] sand-cement-ash matrix bentonite-portland inclusions contact boundary 13.30 18.22 13.00

E [GPa] 2.34 4.30 1.87

0.25 0.25 0.25

[deg] 24.7 38.3 33.0

c [MPa] 2.28 3.07 1.00

3.1

Generation of virtual specimens

A MATLAB routine was coded for the specimen generation. The algorithm generates a virtual cylindrical specimen with ellipsoidal inclusions based on a userdefined volumetric percentage. Once the specimen height and radius are assigned (i.e. for the present study 0.3 m and 0.075 m, respectively), the code starts by defining a set of random variates R according to a bounded power-law probability distribution P(r) from an uniform distribution P(y): ( ) with r0 < r < r1
( ( ))

(II)

where r0 and r1 are the boundary values, and ,*(

( ) ( )

(III)

The R variates are assumed as the maximum semiaxis of a population of equallyshaped ellipsoids (i.e. if a, b, c represent the ellipsoid semiaxes, then for spheres: a = b = c = r; oblate ellipsoids: a = b = r, c = r/2; prolate ellipsoids; a = b = r/2, c = r). According to the properties of the specimens tested by Lindquist, the boundary values r0 and r1 were set as r0 = 2.5% and r1 = 35% of the specimen diameter, and the exponent D was chosen as D = -2.3. The ellipsoids are generated up to a user-defined volumetric percentage (i.e., the VBC), within a threshold of 5%. The set of the semiaxis values is then sorted in a descending order and a random point inside the cylindrical specimen, (x, y, z), is iteratively picked. Ellipsoidal inclusion size is defined from the largest (first element of R) to the smallest radii (last element of R). During this iterative process, two geometric modeling constraints must be satisfied: (i) the ellipsoids must not overlap with each other; and (ii) an ellipsoid must be totally embedded within the cylindrical specimen. The first constraint is guaranteed to be satisfied by considering a proximity query for ellipsoids, named as algebraic separation condition (ASC) (Wang et al. 2001). The ASC consists of a quartic polynomial equation which relates the geometric parameters of shape, spatial orientation, and position of two ellipsoids. Depending on the sign of all four roots, it is possible to determine the contact status between the surfaces (i.e., separated, overlapped, or overlapped at a single point). If the ellipsoid overlapping condition is
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verified, the (x, y, z) point extraction is repeated until no overlap with other alreadyplaced ellipsoid is detected. Since the (x, y, z) point extraction is purely random, for increasing values of VBC there is an increased possibility for the algorithm to be unable to find an available spot where to place the next ellipsoidal inclusion. In general, however, the algorithm works well for VBC 50%. Configurations with VBC > 50% are very unlikely to be reached. Figure 2 shows three examples of virtual specimens generated by the algorithm. For the oblate and prolate options it is also possible to set the global inclination of the major axes to the horizontal plane. In order to simulate the presence of contact boundaries around the inclusions, a specific option was also implemented which generates outer-ellipsoids around the already-placed ones according to a specific thickness expressed as a percentage of the inner ellipsoid radius. A Rhinoscript (Rhinoceros) was then coded to convert the 3-D data generated in MATLAB to a file format (e.g., STEP file) that is suitable to build volumetric meshes within the FEM software MIDAS-GTS, which was then used to perform numerical analyses.

Figure 2. Example of virtual specimens: a) prolate ellipsoid inclusions (30% VBC and major axes inclined at 45 to the horizontal plane); b) spherical inclusions (20% VBC); c) oblate ellipsoid inclusions (25% VBC). The cylindrical sample size is 0.3 m high by 0.075 m base radius.

3.2

FEM model

The FEM analyses presented in this paper were carried out on 3-D virtual cylindrical specimens of welded and unwelded rock mixtures with spherical inclusions (case b of Fig. 2).The purpose of these simulations was to compare the models responses to those of the reconstituted mlanges tested by Lindquist (1994). Accordingly, the assigned material properties and the test configuration modeled in the FEM analyses were inspired by those described by Lindquist (1994).

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The analyses were performed on welded and unwelded specimens with VBC values of 10%, 30% and 50%. The testing procedure has consisted in simulating, for each specimen, a series of strain-controlled compression tests under confining pressures 3 = 0 (uniaxial compression), 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 MPa. According to the geological literature and field observations, the thickness of the contact boundaries in the unwelded specimens were chosen as 10% of the inclusion radius. 3.2.1 Model settings The commercial software MIDAS-GTS 2010 (v1.2) was used for the 3-D FEM simulations. STEP files generated by Rhinoceros were imported into MIDAS-GTS and a parametric representation of the solids was automatically created by the software. An unstructured and graded mesh of 4-node tetrahedral elements was adopted to discretise the geometrical models. Three mesh sets were created, composed of three different materials (Fig. 3): matrix inclusions contact boundaries (only in unwelded specimens)

Figure 3. Mesh sets and materials. a) complete mesh with internal inclusions; b) detail of the unwelded specimen showing the volumic mesh of a spherical inclusion and its contact boundary. In welded specimens only matrix and inclusion mesh sets and materials are present.

The materials were described according to the Mohr-Coulomb elastic-perfectly plastic constitutive model with non-associated flow rule and dilatancy angle set as 0 degrees. The mechanical properties assigned to each material set are listed in Table 1. Homogeneous specimens without inclusions, having material properties corresponding to those of matrix and inclusion material sets, respectively, were also tested in order to assess the validity of the FEM analysis.
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The boundary conditions were assigned in order to simulate an idealized compression test allowing free lateral expansion, thus avoiding a barrel-shape deformation of the specimen. The nodes on the bottom face were all constrained along the z-direction, while only five nodes on the bottom and top faces were constrained along the x and y directions according to the scheme of Figure 4.

Figure 4. Configuration of the xy-plane node constrains on the top and bottom faces of the cylindrical specimens.

3.2.2 Numerical results Compression tests were modeled by applying a constant displacement boundary condition to the top face nodes. The final displacement (0.002 m) was reached through 10 equal load steps corresponding to axial strain increments = 6.610-4. The confining stress 3 was simulated as a uniform normal pressure applied all around the specimen. At the end of the simulation, the axial total stress a for each load step was calculated by summing up the reacting nodal force along the vertical direction (Fz). The strength and deformability parameters (Table 2) were calculated from the stressstrain curves, assuming the peak stress in the correspondence of the curve yield point. The Youngs modulus for each specimen was calculated on the elastic linear portion of the uniaxial compression curve up to a deformation of 2.010 -3. Figure 5 shows the stress-strain curves for one set of specimens.
Table 2. Specimen Matrix Inclusion Contact Boundary Welded Welded Welded Unwelded Unwelded Unwelded Mechanical properties calculated from the FEM results. VBC [%] 0 100 10 30 50 10 30 50 UCS [MPa] 7.10 12.6 7.17 7.64 8.99 7.10 7.20 6.89 E [GPa] 2.33 4.30 1.87 2.47 2.79 3.06 2.40 2.60 2.66 [deg] 24.7 38.3 32.8 24.4 25.5 27.3 24.2 25.6 28.0 c [MPa] 2.28 3.07 1.00 2.31 2.40 2.70 2.36 2.20 1.95

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Figure 5. Stress-strain curve relative to welded specimens with VBC = 30%. The Youngs modulus (E) is calculated on the elastic linear portion of the uniaxial compression curve.

Numerical tests evidenced a strong dependency of the mechanical parameters from the VBC, and a marked difference in the mechanical response of the welded and unwelded specimens. The Youngs modulus, uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), friction angle and cohesion show a constant increase with VBC for the welded specimens; while a progressive decrease in cohesion is clear in the unwelded case (Fig. 6). Stress distributions inside the specimens were observed to be strongly influenced by the presence and disposition of the inclusions. As the axial load increases, a progressive concentration of stress around the inclusions is observed, leading to localization of deformations. Plastic deformations initiates inside the matrix around the inclusions where stress concentration reaches matrix strength (Fig. 7). In unwelded specimens the first yielding takes place inside the contact boundaries and progressively propagates towards the surrounding matrix (Fig. 8).

Figure 6. Influence of the VBC on strength and deformability parameters of the virtual bimrock models. The physical test data from Lindquist (1994)on unwelded specimens are also showed. Eurock 2012 Page 9

Figure 7. Distribution of plastic shear strain inside a welded virtual specimen (in this case VBC = 30%): a) 20% axial loading; b) 40% axial loading; c) 50% axial loading. The mesh set of inclusions has been hided. Red values in the scale log represent the percentage of mesh elements assuming the corresponding value of stain.

Figure 8. Propagation of yield zones inside an unwelded virtual specimen (in this case VBC = 30%): a) 20% axial loading; b) 30% axial loading; c) 40% axial loading. The mesh set of inclusions has been hided. Red values in the scale log represent the percentage of mesh elements assuming the corresponding value of stain.

DISCUSSION

Some important considerations can be outlined from the numerical analyses summarized in Figure 6: the presence of inclusions has a negligible influence on strength and deformability parameters, which are very close to those of pure matrix, for both welded and unwelded specimens with VBC = 10%. This result appears to be in perfect agreement with the common assumption of a VBC threshold of 20-25% above which the presence of rock inclusions starts influencing the overall mechanical behavior of bimrocks;
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UCS values for welded and unwelded specimens are very similar for VBC of 10% and 30%, while they significantly differ for VBC = 50%. Welded specimens show an overall increasing trend, while UCS fluctuates around the matrix UCS in the unwelded case, in agreement with Lindquists physical test data; both welded and unwelded show a progressive increase in Youngs modulus as VBC increases, with a slight steeper trend for welded specimens; friction angle behaves almost identically for the two configurations, showing a progressive increase with VBC. The slope, however, is smoother than what showed by physical test data. This behavior can be explained as due to the spherical shape of the inclusions adopted in these preliminary FEM analyses, which probably led to less tortuous paths of the plastic shear deformations inside the specimens; further analysis with different shapes of the inclusions (oblate and prolate ellipsoids) are required to investigate this point; a completely different behavior, instead, can be observed for the cohesion, which increases for welded specimens and, according to Lindquist data from unwelded specimens, decreases for the unwelded configuration. Also in this case the drop is not as steep as that observed in the physical models. Possible explanations are: (i) the presence of wax films to simulate the matrix shear bands in the physical models, (ii) the spherical shape of the inclusions in the virtual specimens.
CONCLUSIONS

The preliminary FEM simulations of uniaxial and triaxial compressive tests presented in this paper were performed on virtual specimens with spherical inclusions both in welded and unwelded configurations, by assuming the mechanical parameters of the materials tested by Lindquist (1994). The results of the analysis outlined a good agreement with experimental and literature data and showed a strong potential of the FEM method for investigating the mechanical behavior of bimrock rock mixtures. Further simulations are required on specimens with oblate and prolate ellipsoidal inclusions at various inclinations. Due to the extreme complexity of the rock mixture mechanical behavior, a better understanding could be possible by comparing laboratory tests with numerical simulations.
6 REFERENCES

Coli, N., Berry, P. & Boldini, D. 2011. In situ non-conventional shear tests for the mechanical characterisation of a bimrock. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 48: 95-102. Coli, N., Berry, P., Boldini D. & Bruno, R. 2012. The contribution of geostatistics to the characterisation of some bimrock properties. Engineering Geology. Lindquist, E. 1194. The Strength and Deformation Properties of Melange. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1994. Lindquist. E.S. & Goodman. R.E. 1994. Strength deformation properties of a physical model melange. In Proceedings of 1st North American Rock Mech Symposium, Austin, Texas, 1994, pp. 843-850. Kim, C., Snell, C. & Medley, E. 2004. Shear Strength of Franciscan Complex Melange as Calculated From Back-Analysis of a Landslide. In Proceedings of the
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Fifth Int. Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering, New York, 2004. Volume 2, Issue 33, pp.1-8. Medley, E. 1994. The engineering characterization of melanges and similar block_in_matrix rocks (bimrocks). Dept of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkley, California, PhD diss., UMI Diss. Svc., Ann Arbor, NI. Medley, E. 2002. Estimating Block Size Distributions of Melanges and Similar Blockin Matrix Rocks (Bimrocks). In Proceedings of 5th North American Rock Mechanics Symposium (NARMS), Toronto, July 2002, pp. 509-606. Medley, E. & Lindquist, E.S. 1995, The engineering significance of the scaleindependence of some Franciscan melanges in California, USA. In Proceedings of the 35th US Rock Mechanics Symposium, Reno, 1995. pp. 907-914. Medley, E. & Wakabayashi, J. 2004. Geological Characterization of Melanges for Practitioners. Felsbau Rock Soil Eng-J Eng Geol, Geomech Tunnelling. 22(5): 1018. Pan, Y.W., Hsieh, M.H. & Liao, M.H. 2008. Mechanical Properties of virtual blockin-matrix colluvium. In Proceedings of ARMA 2008, American Rock Mechanics Association, 42nd U.S. Rock Mechanics Symposium, San Francisco, USA, 2008. 8pp. Riedmuller, G., Brosch, F.J., Klima, K. & Medley, E. 2001. Engineering geological characterization of brittle faults and classification of fault rocks. Felsbau Rock Soil Eng-J Eng Geol, Geomech Tunnelling. 19 (4): 13-19. Sonmez, H., Gokceoglu, C., Medley. E., Tuncay, E. & Nefeslioglu, H.A. 2006. Estimating the Uniaxial Compressive Strength of a Volcanic Bimrock. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci. 43: 554-561. Sonmez, H., Kasapoglu, K.E., Coskun, A., Tununsluoglu, C., Medley E.& Zimmerman, R.W. 2009. A conceptual empirical approach for the overall strength of unwelded bimrocks. In ISRM Regional Symposium Rock Eng. In Difficult Ground Conditions, Soft Rocks and Karst, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 29-31 October 2009. Sonmez, H., Tuncay, E. & Gokceoglu, C. 2004. Models to predict the uniaxial compressive strength and the modulus of elasticity for Ankara Agglomerate. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci. 41: 71729. Wang, W., Wang, J. & Kim, M.-S. 2001. An algebraic condition for the separation of two ellipsoids. Computer Aided Geometric Design 18(6): 531539.Xu, W., Hu, R. & Tan, R. 2007. Some geomechanical properties of soil-rock mixtures in the Hutiao Gorge area, China. Gotechnique. 3: 255-264.

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