The Brittle-Ductile Transition Stress of Different Rock Types and Its
Relationship with Uniaxial Compressive Strength and Hoek-Brown Material
Constant (mi)
Abstract
The investigation on brittle-ductile transition has become of central
importance in many geologic situations. This paper aims to study the
relationship between brittle-ductile transition stress, uniaxial
compressive strength, and Hoek-Brown material constant (mi). To fulfill
this goal, a significant amount of data from literature were selected
and analyzed. Additionally, transition stress was determined based on
the combination of Hoek-Brown failure criteria and the recently used
transition-ductile stress limit. New non-linear correlations were
established between uniaxial compressive strength and Hoek-Brown
material constant (mi) for different rock types. The obtained results
demonstrate a good correlation between uniaxial compressive strength and
transition stress for igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks;
however, the correlation was not notable between Hoek-Brown material
constant (mi) and transition stress for sedimentary and metamorphic
rocks.