Assessment of some failure criteria for strongly anisotropic geomaterials

This paper is devoted to the assessment of some representative failure criteria in the framework of modelling the failure behaviour of strongly anisotropic geomaterials. Experimental data concerning the failure behaviour of a typical strongly anisotropic rock; the schist of Angers are first presented. Nine widely used failure criteria are then selected and classified into three groups, the mathematical continuous models, the empirical continuous models and the discontinuous weakness planes based models. This classification is made up according to the main assumptions and techniques used in each criterion to describe the strength anisotropy. The calibration of each one is carried out with respect to the laboratory data of Angers schist. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons between the selected criteria and with the experimental data are provided. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.