ON ENERGY ANALYSIS OF ROCK FAILURE

On the viewpoint of energy,the deformation and failure process of rock are studied. The behavior of energy dissipation and energy release during this process is also discussed. Theoretical and laboratory experimental studies indicate that energy plays an important role during rock deformation and failure. Rock failure is caused by the abrupt energy release,which is the catastrophe of energy dissipation under a certain condition. From the viewpoint of mechanics,rock deformation and failure process are processes from local dissipation to part failure and eventually to whole catastrophe;in addition,from the viewpoint of thermodynamics,this process is an irreversible process which includes energy dissipation and energy release. Current mechanics theories emphasize the energy dissipation and part breakage,however,the main feature of rock failure is energy release. Therefore, it is necessary to consider synthetically the effect of energy dissipation and energy release. Laboratory studies in the paper also demonstrate that the rock failure feature can not be described by the stress or strain strength. It is observed that the failure types of rock samples are different from each other even if the stress-strain curves are almost uniform,but the amount of energy release of rock samples is distinct. Consequently,the rock deformation and fracture process can be well described from the viewpoint of energy.