Investigation of the anisotropic confinement-dependent brittleness of a Utah coal

Changes of failure mechanism with increasing confinement, from extensional to shear-dominated failure, are widely observed in the rupture of intact specimens at the laboratory scale and in rock masses. In an analysis published in 2018, both unconfined and triaxial compressive tests were conducted to investigate the strength characteristics of 84 specimens of a Utah coal, including the spalling limits, the ratio of apparent unconfined compressive strength to unconfined compressive strength (UCS), the damage characteristics, and the post-yield dilatancy. These mechanical characteristics were found to be strongly anisotropic as a function of the orientation of the cleats relative to the loading direction, defined as the included angle. A total of four different included angles were used in the work performed in 2018. The authors found that the degree of anisotropic strength differed according to the included angle. However, the transition from extensional to shear failure at the given confinements was not clearly identified. In this study, a total of 20 specimens were additionally prepared from the same coal sample used in the previous study and then tested under both unconfined and triaxial compressive conditions. Because the authors already knew the most contrasting cases of the included angles from the previous work using the four included angles, they chose only two of the included angles (0° and 30°) for this study. For the triaxial compressive tests, a greater confining stress than the mean UCS was applied to the specimens in an attempt to identify the brittle-ductile transition of the coal. The new results have been compiled with the previous results in order to re-evaluate the confinement-dependency of the coal behavior. Additionally, the different confining stresses are used as analogs for different width-to-height (W/H) conditions of pillar strength. Although the W/H ratios of the specimens were not directly considered during testing, the equivalent W/H ratios of a pillar as a function of the confining stresses were estimated using an existing empirical solution. According to this relationship, the W/H at which in situ pillar behavior would be expected to transition from brittle to ductile is identified.

Formulation of Anisotropic Strength Criterion for Geotechnical Materials

A new nonlinear unified strength (NUS) criterion is obtained based on the spatially mobilized plane (SMP) criterion and Mises criterion. New criterion is a series of smooth curves between SMP curved triangle and Mises circle in the π plane and thereby unifies the strength criteria. The new criterion can reflect the effect of the intermediate principal stress and consider the strength nonlinearity of a material. Based on the fabric tensor, the anisotropic parameter A is defined, and the anisotropic equation is proposed and introduced into the NUS criterion to form a nonlinear unified anisotropic strength criterion. The new criterion can be used to predict the strength variation of granular materials and cohesive materials under three-dimensional stress and can present the strength anisotropy of the geomaterials. The validity of the new criterion was checked using rock and soil materials. It is shown that the prediction results for the criterion agree well with the test data.

Temperature Control to Increase Inter-Layer Bonding Strength in Fused Deposition Modelling

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) provides opportunities for new development in numerous areas. Z-directional anisotropic strength caused by weak inter-layer bonding has been recognized as the reason for limited industry adoption of FDM. This paper aims to investigate increasing the Z-directional strength of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) using a temperature controlled print environment. The ambient temperature during printing was increased to reduce heat transfer from the print, thereby encouraging more polymer chain inter-diffusion between layers. Dogbone specimens were printed at ambient print temperatures between 24.8°C and 71.2°C and tensile tests were performed. A thermal camera was used to identify heat loss in the FDM process. Ultimate tensile strength was found to increase by a maximum of 104% compared to open enclosure printing. A stylus profiler and scanning electron microscopy were used to compare the quality of the inter-layer bonds, suggesting that additional polymer inter-diffusion occurred at hotter ambient temperatures. A weak positive relationship was found between ambient air temperature and inter-layer part strength. Further experimentation could provide scope to determine an ideal ambient print temperature that is likely to be dependent on print settings and the printer used.

Study on the Ultimate Supporting Force of Shield Excavation Face Based on Anisotropic Strength Theory

The determination of the ultimate supporting force of the shield excavation face is an important problem to be solved in shield construction. Considering that the tunnel burial depth ratio has a significant effect on the instability mode of the excavation face, the classic “wedge-prism” limit equilibrium model is improved. Based on the rotation effect of principal stress axis, the Casagrande anisotropic strength equation is introduced into the modified limit equilibrium model of “wedge-prism”, and then the limit equilibrium solution of the ultimate supporting force of shield excavation face in anisotropic soil is deduced. Finally, the influence of each calculation parameter on the ultimate supporting force is analyzed by examples. The research results show that the results of the modified “wedge-prism” calculation model proposed in this paper are slightly larger than those of the centrifugal test. If the influence of the instability mode of excavation face and the anisotropy of soil strength on ultimate supporting force of the shield excavation face is not taken into account, the calculation result will be unsafe. The limit supporting force of shield tunnel excavation surface has a simple linear relationship with the anisotropy ratio. When the anisotropy ratio is greater than 1, the ultimate supporting force of shield excavation face decreases first and then tends to be stable with an increase in the buried depth ratio. When the anisotropy ratio is less than 1, the law is reversed. The more obvious the anisotropy of soil strength, the greater the rate of change of ultimate supporting force. The limit supporting force of the shield excavation face decreases linearly with the exertion of loosening earth pressure, linearly decreases with the increase in soil cohesion, and decreases nonlinearly with the increase in the angle of internal friction in soil. The relevant conclusions will provide theoretical guidance for controlling the reasonable chamber pressure of shield tunneling, and ensure the safety of construction.