During the process of resource exploitation, roadways, caverns and shafts present rheological phenomenon (including the creep and stress relaxation phenomenon) due to the time effects in terms of underground excavation and support measures. In the conditions of the dynamic disturbance such as rock blasting, the accelerating creep process can take place for rock masses which exhibit rheological behavior and the instability failure of rock and mining-induced dynamic disasters can be triggered easily for the deep buried rockmass in particular. The stress relaxation of rock is one of the special types of the long-term rheological process, but the effects of dynamic disturbance (such as rock blasting) on rheological behavior of rock mass were instant. Considering the significantly different time-frequency scales of strain rates for stress relaxation and dynamic disturbance, seldom studies were conducted about the combined effects of these two factors on the rock mechanical properties. Therefore, it is of great importance to have a good knowledge of the induced damage evolution law of rockmass under the combined actions of the stress relaxation and impactive disturbance, and it lays practical foundations for understanding rheological mechanism, evaluating the engineering stability and optimizing the supporting parameters.

Aims and Scope:

1. Failure mechanism related to accelerating creep of rock triggered by dynamic disturbance
2. Development of rheological fracture under dynamic disturbance conditions such as earthquakes
3. Rock stress relaxation disturbed by dynamic loading
4. Laboratory and field measurements of coupled processes in fractured/fracturing media
5. Coupled processes relevant in deep mining, including mining induced rockburst
6. Short-term vs. long-term effects