Zonal disintegration of surrounding rock mass around the diversion tunnels in Jinping II Hydropower Station, Southwestern China

By means of numerical simulation, the special phenomenon of zonal disintegration of surrounding rock mass around the diversion tunnels of Jinping II Hydropower Station is analyzed in this paper. In order to model the growth and coalescence of cracks within rock mass in Jinping II Hydropower Station, the weak-element is adopted. When cracks coalesce, failure of deep crack-weakened rock masses occurs and fractured zone is formed. The present result is different from the one obtained by the traditional elasto-plastic theory. The numerical results show that the slip-line zonal fracture is created within rock mass around the diversion tunnels in Jinping II Hydropower Station. Meanwhile, the magnitude and distributions of fractured zones are determined by numerical simulation. It is shown that the present results are in good agreement with the one observed by model tests. Through sensitivity analysis, the effects of stress condition, cohesion and the angle of internal friction on the phenomenon of zonal disintegration is determined.