Study on stress P-wave propagation across intersecting rock joints with nonlinear deformation

The intersecting distribution of joints in rock mass makes the stress wave propagation complicated. In this paper, the propagation characteristics of stress P-waves across nonlinearly intersecting rock joints were studied by using theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. The propagation process of multiple reflected waves between two intersecting joints was analyzed using the time-domain recursive analysis method(TDRM) and the propagation equation was established combining the principle of superposition. The wave propagation process in two intersecting joints was simulated by UDEC. The comparison between the theoretical and numerical results shows that they are very close to each other. A numerical model was proposed for calculating the propagation of stress P-wave cross two sets of intersecting rock joints, and parameters studies were carried out. It is shown that the wave propagation is influenced by joint stiffness, joint distribution and incident wave frequency and that the transmission and reflection coefficients are different at different monitoring positions of intersecting joints. The theoretical method proposed in this paper, providing a new way for analyzing the propagation of stress waves in intersecting joints, still has some limitations. For complex conditions, the numerical simulation method can be adopted to study wave propagation across jointed rock mass. © 2019, Science Press. All right reserved.