FRAMEWORK AND EXPECTATION OF THREE DIMENSIONAL NETWORK STRUCTURAL ROCK MECHANICS

A framework of three-dimensional network structural rock mechanics has been proposed by author recently. It is a new branch of rock mechanics. Main characteristics of research object,basic framework,main research content and future prospection are explained according to author's research experience on fractured rock mass for more than 20 years. It is concluded that rock mass structure control theory consists of four aspects: material strength control,structure type control,seepage path control and geometric boundary control. The main technical contents include three-dimensional RQD estimation,rock mass representative elements estimation technology,structure block search technology,directional projection rock mass discontinuity three-dimensional connectivity estimation technology and rock mass three-dimensional seepage path search technology. The theory is mainly composed of spherical projection theory,probability and statistics theory,stochastics dynamics,geometric topology theory,block theory,nonlinear system theory and multiscale equivalent structure model of fractured rock mass. A large amount of geological data of discontinuities in the sampling window of rock mass investigation is statistically emphasized as a foundation. Rock mass random discontinuities based three dimensional network numerical modelling technique is the kernel of the three-dimensional network structural rock mechanics.