DAMAGE MECHANICS THEORY FOR DISCONTINUOUS ROCK MASS.

In this paper, a new concept for rock mass involving distributed discontinuities in the body is proposed. The effect of distributed discontinuities is characterized with a second-order symmetric tensor (the damage tensor). The damage tensor is built in the system of a continuum mechanics theory, and plays a role of transformation operator for the Cauchy stress. Since the damage tensor is introduced as a field variable in addition to stress and strain, one may need one more field equation which governs the propagation of damage. A form of the propagation equation is proposed. The theory is applied to typical problems and the results are compared with ones of other numerical schemes. (Edited author abstract. )