Quantification and Clustering of Microcrack Tensor Invariants
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Authors
Moore, Ryan
Date
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Microcrack , Invariants
Alternative Title
Abstract
In the field of rock mechanics, the behaviour of hard rock materials such as granite are known to depend strongly on the nature of discontinuities present in the material. Even so-called intact rock samples, collected between discontinuities such as joints, often contain microcracks. Microcracks are discontinuities in rock that are measured on the micrometer up to millimeter length scale. A variety of types of microcracks have been observed in granite, the different varieties of microcracks provide insight into the geological origins of rock material, but these distinctions are generally too complex to take into consideration in engineering design. For rock engineering purposes, microcracks can be idealized as circular planar objects in three dimensions, or line segments in two dimensions. As a given rock material is likely to contain many microcracks, the most critical properties of these microcracks are: the density of microcracking, the length of these microcracks, and the orientation of the circular planar objects or line segments.
To predict the behaviour of rock materials, continuum models measure some representative quantity at some representative length scale to characterize that region of rock material, then predictions can be made based on that characterization. This thesis focuses the act of measuring a property that can be useful in modelling hard rock behaviour in continuum models. To take into account the density, size, and orientation of several microcracks in a hard rock material, tensorial quantities have been historically proposed. One challenge with the usage of tensorial quantities in rock engineering is the tedious nature of their measurement. This thesis reduces the cost of measuring microcrack tensors by automating the process through programmatic means, extending previous work which focused on the automatic measurement of scalar properties of microcracks. Due to this programmatic approach, it becomes trivial to measure microcrack tensors as they vary across a thin section image. This thesis also investigates the usage of the invariants of microcrack tensors as features that could be used to differentiate between mineral groups in thin section images, and explains the limitations and possible improvements that could be made with the usage of this feature.
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ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.