scholarly journals Discrete Element Modeling on Mechanical Behavior of Heterogeneous Rock Containing X-Shaped Fissure under Uniaxial Compression

Geofluids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Ming Chen ◽  
Jian Liu ◽  
Zhengyong Xie ◽  
Jianjun Liu ◽  
Xunjian Hu ◽  
...  

Based on the experimental results of an intact rock specimen under uniaxial compression, particle flow code (PFC2D) was adopted to carry out a discrete element modeling (DEM) for the mechanical behavior of heterogeneous rocks containing X-shaped fissures (two intersecting symmetric single fissures) under uniaxial compression. The influences of β (the acute angle between two single fissures) and the direction angle α (the acute angle between the bisector of β and perpendicular to the loading direction) on the strength, deformation, energy, crack propagation, and ultimate failure mode were analyzed in detail. Numerical simulated results showed the following: (1) Due to the X-shaped fissures, not only the peak strength, elastic modulus, crack initiation stress, and damage stress were significantly reduced, and the reduced degree of the peak strength was obviously greater than that of the elastic modulus, but also the brittleness and energy were significantly weakened. (2) The peak strength and elastic modulus generally decreased with the increase of β and increased with the increase of α . Moreover, the change trends of crack initiation stress, damage stress, boundary energy, and total strain energy at the peak stress were consistent with the peak strength. (3) Regardless of the changes of α and β , models all firstly initiated wing cracks at the two tips of the single fissure with a larger inclination angle, and the crack initiation angle decreased with the increase of the inclination angle of the single fissure. (4) The fracture was dominated by tensile microcracks, and no microcracks were generated in a certain range of the X-shaped fissure center. The failure mode was mainly split along the axial direction, and the failure surface started from the tips of the fissure and extended to both ends of models. (5) The uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus increased exponentially with the increase of the homogeneity factor. When the homogeneity factor was small, the microcracks were more evenly distributed in the models; when the homogeneity factor was large, the microcracks were mainly concentrated at the tips of the fissure in the models. This study can provide some references for the correct understanding of the mechanical properties of rock masses containing X-shaped fissures.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Zhou ◽  
Haijun Chen ◽  
Liangxiao Xiong ◽  
Zhongyuan Xu ◽  
Jie Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract To study the influence of the inclination and length of Z-shaped fissures on the mechanical properties and failure characteristics of the rock mass, this study conducts a series of uniaxial compression tests on rock-like materials with prefabricated Z-shaped fractures. In addition, two-dimensional Particle Flow Code software is used to perform uniaxial compression numerical simulations. The results show that when the specified inclination angle γ (γ = 0°, 30° or 45°) of the parallel cracks on both sides remains unchanged, the peak strength and elastic modulus of the sample show an M-shaped change trend with an increase in the inclination angle β of the middle connection crack. When γ = 60° or 90°, however, the peak strength and elastic modulus of the sample show a trend of decreasing, increasing, and then decreasing as β increases. In addition, the peak strength and elastic modulus of the sample decrease with an increase in the crack length. The influence of crack length on the elastic modulus is less than that of compressive strength. Further, the main failure mode of specimens with Z-shaped cracks is determined to be tension–shear mixed failure manifested by crack propagation from the tip of the prefabricated crack to the upper and lower boundaries of the sample. As a result, a through failure surface is formed with the prefabricated crack, which destroys the sample.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Chen ◽  
Xianbiao Mao ◽  
Peng Wu

Comprehensive understanding of the effects of temperature and inclination angle on mechanical properties and fracture modes of rock is essential for the design of rock engineering under complex loads, such as the construction of nuclear waste repository, geothermal energy development and stability assessment of deep pillar. In this paper, a novel inclined uniaxial compression (inclined UCS) test system was introduced to carry out two series of inclined uniaxial compression tests on granite specimens under various inclination angles (0–20°) and treated temperatures (25–800 °C) at 5° inclination. Experimental results revealed that the peak compression stress and elastic modulus gradually decreased, while peak shear stress increased nonlinearly with the increasing inclination angle; the peak compression and shear stress as well as elastic modulus slightly increased from 25 to 200 °C, then gradually decreased onwards with the increasing temperature. The effect of temperature on peak axial strain was the same as that on peak shear displacement. Acoustic emission (AE) results suggested that the relationship between crack initiation stress, inclination angle and treated temperature followed a similar trend as that of the peak compression stress and elastic modulus. Particularly, the crack initiation (CI) stress threshold and shear stress corresponding to CI threshold under 800 °C were only 7.4% of that under 200 °C and revealed a severe heat damage phenomenon, which was consistent with the results of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with the appearance of a large number of thermal pores observed only under 800 °C. The failure modes tended to shear failure with the increasing inclination angle, indicating that the shear stress component can accelerate sliding instability of rocks. On the other hand, the failure patterns with different temperatures changed from combined splitting-shear failure (25–400 °C) to single shear failure (600 and 800 °C). The study results can provide an extremely important reference for underground thermal engineering construction under complex loading environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Suifeng Wang ◽  
Fei Tan ◽  
Minglong You ◽  
Yu-Yong Jiao ◽  
Fubin Tu

Investigating the crack initiation stress of rocks is vital for understanding the gradual damage process of rocks and the evolution law of internal cracks. In this paper, the particle flow code method is used to conduct biaxial compression tests on a marble model with an elliptical crack under different confining pressures. According to the evolution status of microcracks in the rock during compression, four characteristic stresses are defined to reflect the gradual damage process of the marble. Two different methods are used to obtain crack initiation stress of rocks, and the calculation results are compared with those based on Griffith’s strength theory to verify the accuracy of this theory under compressive stress. Based on the numerical simulation results, the evolution law for the strength parameters of marble with the degree of damage is described. According to the proportional relationship between the peak stress and crack initiation stress, a new method for predicting the initiation stress is proposed, whose effectiveness is verified. Overall, the results of this study can serve as a useful guide for solving the important problems of slab cracking and rockburst encountered in underground space engineering.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 1543-1568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Ngai Yuen Wong ◽  
Jun Peng

Pore-like flaws, which are commonly encountered in brittle rock, play an important role in the engineering performance of structures constructed in or on rock. Experimental and numerical investigations of micro-cracking mechanism of rock containing a pore-like flaw can enhance our knowledge of rock damage/failure from a microscopic view. In this study, the influences of a two-dimensional circular pore-like flaw with respect to its diameter and position on the strength and micro-cracking behavior of brittle rock under uniaxial compression are numerically investigated. The results reveal that the strength and elastic modulus are significantly affected by the diameter and position in the pore. The uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of the numerical model with a pore diameter of 15.44 mm located in the center of the model are found to decrease by 58.6% and 56.4% respectively when compared with those of the intact model without a pore. As the pore position varies while the porosity remains unchanged, the simulated uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus are also found to be generally smaller than those of the intact model without a pore. When a pore-containing numerical model is loaded, the micro-cracks are found to mostly initiate at the top and bottom of the pore, due to the local tensile stress increase. The simulation results of the early-stage micro-cracking process and stress distribution are in a generally good agreement with the analytical solution obtained from the Kirsch equations. The grain-based model used in this study can not only study the crack initiation on the boundary of the pore but also provide a convenient means to analyze and visualize the temporal and spatial micro-cracking process after the crack initiation, which accounts for the variations in the simulated strength and modulus satisfactorily from a micro-cracking view.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Dongxu Liang ◽  
Nong Zhang ◽  
Haoyu Rong ◽  
Zhe Xiang

The purpose of this paper is to study the crack initiation, propagation, and coalescence of the sandy mudstone sample with two sets of prefabricated cross-flaws under uniaxial compression. This study is different from previous studies on single or multiple parallel prefabricated flaws. The prefabricated cross-flaws are characterized by the dip of the rock bridge with the direction of the main flaw ( β ) and the angle between the direction of main and minor flaws ( γ ). The effects of these two parameters on crack initiation, propagation, coalescence, crack initiation stress, and coalescence stress are analyzed. Moreover, numerical simulation of the uniaxial compression experiments is performed using PFC2D with a flat-joint model, and the simulation results are in good agreement with those from the experiments. The results demonstrate that the dip angle of the rock bridge with the direction of the main flaw ( β ) has strong effects on the crack initiation and coalescence stresses. The larger the angle between the direction of main and minor flaws γ , the greater the crack initiation and coalescence stresses. The crack initiation stress is reduced for the case with cross-flaws compared with that with non-cross-flaws. Meanwhile, the connection type of main flaws and the width of the crack coalescence zone are difficult to observe through the experiments and are discovered from the numerical simulation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Zhenhua Wang ◽  
Jun Fang ◽  
Gang Wang ◽  
Yifan Jiang ◽  
Dongwei Li

The uniaxial compression tests were conducted on granite samples with different joint dip angles to more favorably explore the influences of the nonconsecutive joint on mechanical properties and deformation characteristics of the rock mass. The stress-strain curves, deformation and strength characteristics, and energy evolution process of the samples were analyzed. Numerical simulation using particle flow code (PFC) is employed to study the crack propagation process. The mode of jointed and fractured rock was investigated. The research results showed a significant reduction in both the peak strength and elastic modulus of jointed samples compared with intact ones: the peak strength and elastic modulus drop to the minimum at the joint dip angle of about 45°, especially for the peak strength, which takes up about 55% of the intact samples. The fractured samples’ total energy, elastic strain energy, and dissipated energy during the uniaxial compression drop significantly relative to intact samples. The proportion of the fracture modes varies with different joint dip angles, in which the ratio of shear cracks grows at first and then declines, with the highest balance at the dip angle of 45°. The damage stress’s sensitivity to the dip angle change is greater than that of the peak stress, with reduction amplitude more extensive than the latter.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Chen ◽  
Peng Wu ◽  
Yanlong Chen ◽  
Wei Zhang

The effect of freeze-thaw on the physical-mechanical properties and fracture behavior of rock under combined compression and shear loading was crucial for revealing the instability mechanism and optimizing the structure design of rock engineering in cold regions. However, there were few reports on the failure behavior of rock treated by freeze-thaw under combined compression and shear loading due to the lack of test equipment. In this work, a novel combined compression and shear test (C-CAST) system was introduced to carry out a series of uniaxial compression tests on saturated yellow sandstone under various inclination angles (θ = 0°, 5°, 10°, and 15°) and the number of freeze-thaw cycles (N = 0, 20, 40, and 60). The test results showed that the P-wave velocity dramatically decreased, while the rock quality and porosity increased gradually as N increased; the peak compression strength and elastic modulus obviously decreased with the increasing θ and N, while the peak shear stress increased gradually with the increasing θ and decreased with the increase of N, indicating that the shear stress component can accelerate the crack propagation and reduce its resistance to deformation. The acoustic emission (AE) results revealed that the change of crack initiation (CI) stress and crack damage (CD) stress with the θ and N had a similar trend as that of the peak compression strength and elastic modulus. Particularly, the CI and CD thresholds at 60 cycles were only 81.31% and 84.47% of that at 0° cycle and indicated a serious freeze-thaw damage phenomenon, which was consistent with the results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with the appearance of some large-size damage cracks. The fracture mode of sandstone was dependent on the inclination angle. The failure mode developed from both the tensile mode (0°) and combined tensile-shear mode (5°) to a pure shear failure (10°–15°) with the increasing inclination angle. Meanwhile, the freeze-thaw cycle only had an obvious effect on the failure mode of the specimen at a 5° inclination. Finally, a novel multivariate regression analysis method was used to predict the peak compression strength and elastic modulus based on the initial strength parameters (θ = 0°, N = 0). The study results can provide an important reference for the engineering design of rock subjected to a complex stress environment in cold regions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 919-921 ◽  
pp. 666-669
Author(s):  
Xiang Tian Xu ◽  
Cai Xia Fan ◽  
Jun Hong Yuan

The uniaxial compressive tests on frozen loess with different ice content under loading rate of 1.25mm/min at-6°C are carried out to investigate the effects of ice content on the mechanical behavior of ice. The influence of ice content on stress-strain, elastic modulus, strength and failure strain of frozen loess are analyzed based on the experimental data. The results show that strength and failure strain increase with increasing of ice content. The elastic modulus first increase and then decrease with increasing of ice content.


2007 ◽  
Vol 353-358 ◽  
pp. 2329-2332
Author(s):  
Xing Dong Zhao ◽  
Yuan Hui Li ◽  
Rui Fu Yuan

AE technique is proved a efficient tool for real-time monitoring of the crack initiation and propagation during rock failure process under uniaxial compression condition. In this paper, An AE system was employed to investigate the crack propagation and failure modes of three groups of granite specimens (80mm×100mm×170mm) with the same pre-existing crack. The AE sensors can be surface mounted. By using a Geiger location algorithm, AE event location can be determined by time-of-arrival times. The propagation velocities of p-wave or s-wave of granite samples were measured. Experiments on pre-existing crack propagation of granite samples were carried out on the press machine. From the testing result, failure mode of three kinds of granite samples was mainly shear failure, while the secondary crack propagated slowly and could not influence the failure mode of granite sample. By surveying the relation of accumulative AE events and stress-strain curve, AE activity represents different characters with stress-strain changing during the total loading process, microcracking contributing to fracture propagation with strain corrosion. AE location result reflected crack initiation and propagation, which is of great importance in studying rock instability and predicting rock failure mode.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ye Lou ◽  
Guangqing Zhang ◽  
Xiaoxiao Wang

Crack initiation is related to the behavior of the preexisting microcracks within a rock specimen, which suggests the specimen starts to fail. The determination of crack initiation stress is important for identifying the elastic stage and related mechanical parameters. Uniaxial compression tests with acoustic emission monitoring were performed to study crack initiation for tight sandstone, loose sandstone, and granite. The evolution of the cracking mode, i.e., the statistics of the cracking mode under compression, was obtained through modified acoustic emission parameter analysis. Based on the logarithm of the acoustic emission parameter (LAEP), a cracking mode analysis (CMA) method is proposed and used to determine the crack initiation stress. Results from the tests indicate that the crack initiation stress between the same rock specimens obtained by CMA is very close. The mean ratio of crack initiation stress to compression strength is 0.45, 0.34, and 0.35 for tight sandstone, loose sandstone, and granite, respectively. According to the results of CMA, crack volumetric strain (CVS) method, and lateral strain response (LSR) method, there is no big difference among those methods in tight sandstone and loose sandstone. In granite, the results obtained by CMA are close to those obtained by CVS, but smaller than those obtained by LSR. The CMA interprets the initiation of cracks from the fracture behavior of microcracks and is an objective method to determine the initiation stress.


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