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Abstract The modeling of geological faults is a difficult issue in the numerical analysis of geotechnical engineering. The methodology for modeling of complex geological faults is proposed by using element reconstruction. This method firstly discretizes the analysis objects without taking geological faults into consideration. Then，by conducting element reconstruction，the geological faults can be constructed into the model. The element reconstruction is to establish fault-free models by using eight-node hexahedron element at first. Afterwards，by using four-node tetrahedron，five-node rectangular pyramid and six-node triangular prism，the meshes that are intersected by structural planes can be reconstructed and the fault-contained model is obtained. And the fault-contained model has multi-form elements. Then，the proposed method is illustrated with its applications to several geotechnical examples，including the modeling of geological faults in complex underground bifurcation pipe，abutment and foundation of gravity dam and large-scale underground caverns. These applications prove the effectiveness of proposed method. The numerical analysis is further conducted by taking underground caverns as an example. By using common software，the excavation simulation is performed on the fault-free model and fault-contained model of underground caverns，respectively. The elements of geological faults in fault-contained model are directly simulated by entity elements. By comparing the results of different models，it is discovered that the distributions of surrounding rock deformation and stress show a remarkable discontinuous feature in the fault-contained model. The surrounding rock intersected by geological faults observes an increase of displacement and a release of stress. This indicates that the meshes generated by the proposed modeling method can be used in numerical analysis and influences of geological faults on surrounding rock stability can be properly reflected as well. Thus，the reliability of proposed method is demonstrated，providing the modeling of complex geological faults in geotechnical engineering with a convenient way.
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Received: 22 December 2008
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