A Preliminary Fractal Interpretation of Effects of Grain Size and Grain Shape on Rock Strength

Rock strength is an important consideration to indicate the integrity and stability of wellbore drilling, tunnels, and other underground excavations. In this research, by assuming the rock rain as a 3D spheroid with a 2D ellipse projection area, a fractal model is developed to quantify the rock strength based on the fractal dimensions of grain size and grain aspect ratio. The validity of the modeling is verified using available experimental...