Block theory on the complex combinations of free planes

The core problem of block theory is to determine the finiteness, removability and mechanical stability of various blocks under different engineering structures based on dip angles, dip direction angles of discontinuities, frictional angles and the direction of the active resultant force. The practices of the classical block theory focus mainly on the convex blocks, assuming that joint surfaces and excavation faces are planar and extended infinitely in the rock mass. However, in practical engineering structures, the concave combinations of free planes (natural of excavated surfaces) are common. For example, the non-convex blocks usually exist in underground edges, corners and portals, and some of them are quite dangerous. In this paper, the characteristics of the non-convex blocks with complex combinations of free planes are analysed deeply based on the classical block theory. First, a non-convex block is seen as a combination of a series of convex blocks, then the criteria for finiteness and removability of the non-convex blocks are proposed, and finally, the identification algorithm is designed and validated by some cases. The results show that the method is effective and feasible and has important theoretical significance and practical value.