Advances in Understanding Rock Mass Structural-Dependent Cyclic and Fatigue Behaviors

Dear Colleagues,

Rock mass often consists of different types of discontinuous structures, such as cleavages, foliations, beddings, laminae, joints, faults, etc. The existence of those discontinuities will impose significant effects on the geomechanical properties of rock mass. The environmental and human-induced loading acting on the rock mass is often cyclic that is why considering the effect of rock mass structure on the cyclic mechanical responses and fatigue of rock mass is important. On the other hand, the disturbed stress accelerates the deterioration of rock structures, which may finally result in serious geohazards, e.g., landslides, rock collapses, spalling, water inrush, etc. This is complicated by differential fracturing responses under multi-field and multi-phase coupling conditions. As a result, it is crucial to investigate the cyclic or fatigue behavior of rock mass by thoroughly considering its multi-scale structural effects. In the recent decade, the hotspots for geomechanics research concerning the rock mass structure have included:

(1) Structural deterioration of rock mass, such as the coupling effects of flow and stress fields on rock geo-mechanics;
(2) Deep resource and energy development related to fluid flow in fracture networks, such as the cyclic hydraulic fracturing on reservoir rock;
(3) Macro-meso fracture mechanism and modeling method for fatigue instability predication;
(4) Effects of freeze-thaw cycling on geomechanical behaviors for naturally fractured rock mass;
(5) Effects of cyclic impacting loads on multiple-scale failure behaviors for deep underground rock mass.

This Topic aims to collect recent advances in multiscale rock mass structural geomechanics exposed to fatigue or cyclic loading conditions. The articles should provide meaningful approaches and experiences to address the above-mentioned challenge in both laboratory and in situ scale. We sincerely invite you to submit comprehensive review papers and original articles. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

(1) Reporting the typical dynamic instability hazards caused by stress disturbance in rock mass;
(2) Rock structural controlled cyclic or fatigue instability characteristics in engineering rock mass;
(3) Advanced multi-phase, multi-field, and multi-scale coupling models to predict fatigue instability hazards;
(4) New apparatus and methods to observe the occurrence and development of cracks during fatigue instability;
(5) New theory to predict instability hazards in deep mine engineering rock mass;
(6) Advanced numerical simulation developments for predicting fatigue instability;
(7) In situ detection and monitoring of rock fatigue instability based on advanced apparatus;
(8) Fatigue instability prediction using a machine learning or big data platform;
(9) Advanced methods to control rock engineering instability;
(10) Coupled freeze-thaw-mechanical loads on rock damage modeling;
(11) Effect of freeze-thaw treatment and stress disturbance on rock geomechanical properties;
(12) Effects of rock structure on hydraulic fracturing treatment for gas- or oil-containing rock mass;
(13) Effects of macroscopic and mesoscopic rock structures on rock damage and fracture evolution;
(14) Coupled flow-disturbed stress on rock structure deterioration effects;
(15) Coupled freeze-thaw-mechanical loads on rock damage modeling;
(16) Cyclic hydraulic fracturing on meso-structure changes and stimulated reservoir volume.

Prof. Dr. Yu Wang
Dr. Yingjie Xia
Topic Editors