Rock Failure Under Concentrated Loading

The problem of rock behavior under concentrated loadings has been the subject of a number of studies in the past and has been receiving increasing attention by rock mechanics investigators in recent years. Its application covers various fields, but main interest in its solution has arisen in connection with the problems of drilling, bearing capacity, and rock testing. These widely different purposes and fields of interest probably have been one of the reasons why, in spite of the large amount of published experimental data and several theoretical studies, there are still many points which need further clarification. Another reason for this situation undoubtedly is due to the fact that the rock behavior in indentation is complicated by a great number of influencing factors. Experimental evidence shows that, depending on the rock type (mechanical properties, porosity), environment (ambient effective pressure, pore fluid, temperature), and the type of loading (indenter shape, initial embedment, load level, loading rate), the rock response to indentation may vary within very large limits. The widely different rock behavior has made it impossible up to now to treat the problem with a consistent single mathematical theory, but has required instead a series of simplified models covering only certain most important events in the failure sequence. As far as the theory of rock indentation is concerned, this chapter does not add much new information. Its main purpose is, however, to state the indentation problem in a general manner and to indicate which points need to be studied in more detail before its definite solution is attempted. Also, since excellent reviews of the state-of-art of rock indentation in drilling have recently been given,1-4 this will not be repeated here, and only references pertinent to the points of the problem under study will be quoted. The theoretical part of this study attempts to give a quantitative evalu-