Rockburst proneness considering energy characteristics and sample shape effects

Abstract

Accurate prediction of rockburst proneness is one of challenges for assessing the rockburst risk and selecting effective control measures. This study aims to assess rockburst proneness by considering the energy characteristics and qualitative information during rock failure. Several representative rock types in cylindrical and cuboidal sample shapes were tested under uniaxial compression conditions and the failure progress was detected by a high-speed camera. The far-field ejection mass ratio (FEMR) was determined considering the qualitative failure information of the rock samples. The peak-strength energy impact index and the residual elastic energy index were used to quantitatively evaluate the rockburst proneness of both cylindrical and cuboidal samples. Further, the performance of these two indices was analyzed by comparing their estimates with the FEMR. The results show that the accuracy of the residual elastic energy index is significantly higher than that of the peak-strength energy impact index. The residual elastic energy index and the FEMR are in good agreement for both cylindrical and cuboidal rock materials. This is because these two indices can essentially reflect the common energy release mechanism characterized by the mass, ejection velocity, and ejection distance of rock fragments. It suggests that both the FEMR and the residual elastic energy index can be used to accurately measure the rockburst proneness of cylindrical and cuboidal samples based on uniaxial compression test.

Keywords

• Rockburst proneness
• Sample shape
• Strain energy
• Energy release
• Far-field ejection mass ratio (FEMR)