| Rocksalt behavior presents very distinctive features in comparison to the types of rock usually found in the Canadian Shield. It is well known that rocksalt behavior is more ductile than fragile. In addition to its increased deformability, salt response shows a strong time-dependency, which is closely related to the rate of loading. Modeling such a time-dependent non-linear response is a challenging task considering the several deformation phases, which are: instantaneous (elastic and/or plastic), transient and stationary.; For the purpose of this thesis, three constitutive models have been used to characterize rocksalt mechanical response namely, the Norton Creep Law, the Strain Hardening Creep Law (SH) and SUVICsh---which was developed at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. The first model is a classical power law used to describe stationary creep. The SUVICsh model is defined as a unified approach, which makes no distinction between plastic or creep behavior. The SH currently used is a simplified version of the SUVICsh model, ignoring the tensorial component of hardening.; Each model previously described was used to perform numerical analysis on chosen applications, including underground tunnel and pressurized thick cylinder. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
