ABSTRACT
We emphasised earlier on in the book that the nature of rock as a natural material causes it to be discontinuous, inhomogeneous, anisotropic and inelastic. Also, in earlier Chapters, we have demonstrated how the inhomogeneity (having different properties in different locations) affects the rock failure mechanisms through the numerical models with the characterisation of the properties of the elements via the Weibull probability distribution and the homogeneity index, m. In this Chapter, we provide a more extended discussion of the effect of rock inhomogeneity because of the importance of this factor.
