The Hoek-Brown Failure criterion—From theory to application / Критерий Хоека-Брауна - от теории к практике

The Hoek-Brown (HB) failure criterion is one of the most broadly adopted failure criteria to estimate rock mass strength in rock mechanics and mining engineering. Over the past 40 years, the HB criterion has been applied successfully to a wide range of intact and fractured rock types.

The book aims to help researchers, engineers and research students who work in the area of rock mechanics and mining engineering. By reading this book, readers can get to know the theory and principle of the HB failure criterion, methods or guidelines for estimating the HB input parameters, and the methodology of application of the HB criterion in rock engineering projects.

The historical development of the HB failure criterion and associated rock mass properties are presented in Chap. 1. The state of the art of the theoretical deviation of the HB criterion from micro-mechanics principles is introduced in the Chaps. 2–4. It is proved that the constant mi in the HB has physical meaning and is able to relate the microscopic damaged crack characteristics to macro-failures successfully. After that, methods and guidelines for estimating the HB input parameters (the unconfined compressive strength rci, the constant mi, Geological strength index GSI and blasting damage factor D) are introduced in Chaps. 5–7. Finally, five cases about the implementation of the HB criterion into coal mining engineering, rock engineering structure and rock slope stability analysis are presented in Chaps. 8–12. The book is written in an easily readable style. Academics can quickly obtain an overview of the state of the art of the theory of the HB criterion by reading the book before they advance their researches on the topics related to rock failure criteria. Geotechnical engineers can select appropriate HB input parameters for the design and analysis of rock engineering projects with the help of the principles introduced in this book. Research students may use the book as a textbook to learn the principle of rock mechanics related to rock mass properties.