International Journal of Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials
Volume 17, Number 5, October 2010, Page 507
DOI: 10.1007/s12613-010-0350-4
Corresponding author: Ming Xia E-mail: xiaming105@126.com
© University of Science and Technology Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
Particle simulation of the failure process of brittle rock under
triaxial compression
Ming Xia
1,2)
and Ke-ping Zhou
1)
1) School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
2) Ma’anshan Institute of Mining Research, Ma’anshan 243004, China
(Received: 20 August 2009; revised: 17 September 2009; accepted: 3 October 2009)
Abstract: In order to investigate the failure process of brittle rock under triaxial compression through both experimental and numerical ap-
proaches, the particle simulation method was used in numerical simulations and the simulated results were compared with those of the ex-
periment. The numerical simulation results, such as fracture propagation, microcrack distribution, stress-strain response, and damage patterns,
were discussed in detail. The simulated results under various confining pressures (0-60 MPa) are in good agreement with the experimental
results. The simulated results reveal that rock failure is caused by axial splitting under uniaxial compression. As the confining pressure in-
creases, rock failure occurs in a few localized shear planes and the rock mechanical behavior is changed from brittle to ductile. Consequently,
the peak failure strength, microcrack numbers, and the shear plane angle increase, but the ratio of tensile to shear microcracks decreases. The
damage formation during the compression simulations indicates that the particle simulation method can produce similar behaviors as those
observed through laboratory compression tests.
Keywords: rock mechanics; compression testing; failure; fracture modes; simulation; microcracks
[This work was financially supported by the Graduate Degree Thesis Innovation Foundation of Central South University (No.2009ssxt226).]
1. Introduction
Advanced techniques, such as scanning electron micros-
copy (SEM), acoustic emission (AE), computerized tomo-
graphy (CT), and real-time laser holographic interferometry,
are applied to laboratory experiments for monitoring rock
failure processes [1-4]. Although these studies enhance the
understanding of these processes under compression, the re-
lated failure mechanisms, including the microcrack initiation,
propagation, coalescence, axial splitting, and shearing, are
not fully understood [5].
Many existing models, such as the lattice model [6] and
the rock failure process analysis (RFPA) model [7-8], have
some considerable limitations for simulating rock failure
processes [9-10]. To overcome the limitations of the RFPA
model, the local degradation approach [11] and the
elasto-plastic cellular automaton model (EPCA) [12] are
used to simulate the crack initiation, propagation, and coa-
lescence, associated with the rock failure. Recently, the par-
ticle simulation method [13-17], in which the bonded parti-
cle model is commonly used [18], provides a new way to
reproduce many features related to rock behaviors, such as
elasticity, fracturing, acoustic emission, material anisotropy
due to damage accumulation, hysteresis, dilation, post-peak
softening, and strength increase with confinement. For this
reason, the particle simulation method has been used to
solve a wide range of rock failure problems of sample-, en-
gineering-, and geological-length scales [13-17].
In this paper, the particle simulation method built in the
commercial code (two-dimensional particle flow code
(PFC
2D
)) was adopted to simulate the failure process of brit-
tle rock under the confining pressures of 0, 20, 40, and 60
MPa, respectively. The comparison between experimental
and numerical results was carried out. In addition, the for-