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Joint Generation

The geometry of Measured Joints and Synthetic Joints in RocTunnel3 are idealized as planar, circular discs. The circle circumference is discretized into equal linear segments starting at a specific angle of rotation, forming a closed polygon. The more segments, the closer the approximation to a circular disc. The Number of Discretizations can be specified in the Advanced tab of Project Settings and apply to all Measured Joints and Synthetic Joints in the model.

    Increasing the Number of Discretizations forming Measured and/or Synthetic Joints may affect the performance of Compute Blocks since more mesh triangles are required to define the geometry of the joints. More joint mesh elements imply that more memory is required to store the meshes and more computational effort is required to find and resolve mesh-mesh intersections and adjacencies, which are essential steps in creating cut volumes and mapping joints to blocks.

    Joint Definition

    For any given Measured Joint or Synthetic Joint:

    • The orientation is defined by the Dip and Dip Direction.
    • The size is defined by the Radius (the joint polygon inscribes a circle with the specified radius).
    • The center of the joint polygon is defined by the Location which is a 3D point (X, Y, Z).

    Synthetic Joint Definition

    Unlike a Measured Joint, a Synthetic Joint's Location is not explicitly input by the user. The Location of a Synthetic Joint depends on the Traverse path, and the Spacing and Spacing Option defined in the Define Synthetic Joints dialog.

    • The orientation is defined by the Dip and Dip Direction (which may vary for each Synthetic Joint in a Synthetic Joint Set if sampled statistically).
    • The size is defined by the Radius (the joint polygon inscribes a circle with the specified radius) (which may vary for each Synthetic Joint in a Synthetic Joint Set if sampled statistically).
    • The center of the joint polygon is on the Traverse and spaced according the defined Spacing (which may vary for each Synthetic Joint in a Synthetic Joint Set if sampled statistically) and the Spacing Option.

    Block Generator Parameters

    Feature Preservation: High, Medium Low

    The options for Feature Preservation are the same as the ones used in Divide All and Re-Triangulate functions:

    • High: Strict detail preservation, regardless of quality (e.g. can preserve near degenerate, sliver triangles)
    • Medium: The processed geometry may lose some details as it attempts to reduce the amount of bad triangles
    • Low: Re-triangulate with little constraints, which can result in obvious alteration, usually for simplifying geometry

    Merge Tolerance

    The option is the same as the one used in Divide All. User defines the tolerance for merging the volumes of the geometry. Set the value <=0 for the program to automatically set the tolerance. Otherwise, any value >0, the user-defined tolerance will be applied to merge the geometry. The unit of the tolerance volume is consistent with the defined units in project settings.

    Minimum Block Volume

    Blocks with volumes smaller than the threshold are ignored in the post-processing after Compute Blocks during Compute Kinematics.

    Minimum Block Volume can have implications on removability of adjacent blocks, and therefore overall stability of the excavation. The idea with setting a Minimum Block Volume is so that:

    1. Small blocks (e.g., grain of sand, pebble) cannot act as key blocks or blocks which prevent subsequent removal or failure of adjacent blocks.
    2. Small blocks are not computed by the kinematic engine to save on time and computing resources. It is assumed that such small-scale failures are inconsequential.
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