ABSTRACT
Based on the observational behaviour of rock burst encountered in Lesser Himalayan quartzite, the paper attempts to characterize its physico-mechanical behaviour under static and cyclic compression testing. Series of experiments were performed in the laboratory to delineate mechanical properties of quartzite under static and cyclic uniaxial compression to analyze its potential to bursting due to emission of cyclic stress energy. Quartzite from the study area was found to be hard, fine grained exhibiting high stiffness at failure under static compression. Emission of high amount of stress energy was observed from resultant constant amplitude cyclic stress-strain curve indicating its proneness to bursting. The paper back analyzed magnitude of in-situ stresses in rock bursting zones using finite element method to determine role of overburden depth and field stress ratio in causing rock bursting. The result indicates that magnitude of principal stresses increase with depth of overburden and decrease in field stress ratios.
