Poroplastic modelling of the excavation and ventilation of a deep cavity

A plastic deviatoric model with hardening is developed on the basis of geomechanical tests performed in the saturated case on low permeable porous material such as argillite. This model is a generalized Mohr–Coulomb plastic criterion combined with a Drucker–Prager plastic potential and the hardening parameter is the plastic distortion. Three different hardening functions have been introduced on the basis of triaxial tests: an increase of friction angle, a decrease of cohesion after a threshold and a contractancy to dilatancy transition for volumetric plastic strain. This plastic model has been adapted to the partially saturated case. The effective stress is expressed thanks to the equivalent interstitial pressure π. Numerical results are presented for the excavation and monotonous ventilation of a deep cylindrical cavity. A first plastification due to excavation is followed by a second one due to desaturation. The extent of the non‐saturated zone provokes an extent of a plastic zone in the rock mass. Analysis shows that the origin of the plastification can be found in the deviatoric stresses because mean effective stresses are compressive during drying. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.