Research Projects

The research proposal aims to characterize the uncertainty in rock properties, assuming it as a 1. Random variable and 2. Random field at the meso-scale level. This is important as fracture propagation in rocks and localized failures (that govern rock failure at the macro-scale and at field scale) depend on the meso-scale properties. Since meso-scale sized samples cannot be tested in the laboratory, they must be estimated inversely using the data obtained from the experiments. In the proposed work, full-field strain measurement under uniaxial loading conditions can be obtained using Digital Image correlation technique which is then utilized to probabilistically characterize the meso-scale rock properties. This is achieved by minimizing a cost function (representing difference between experiment and finite element model observations). Self optimizing inverse method is adopted to solve this constrained optimization problem and obtain the random variable and random field parameters corresponding to the intact rock properties – Young’s Modulus, Poisson’s ratio, Cohesion and Internal friction angle.