Seminar

The initiation, propagation and coalescence of micro-cracks results in the failure of hard rocks, therefore the study on cracking process is of high value in both scientific and engineering fields. The 2D cracking process has been well documented in literature, both experimentally and numerically.  However, the research on the shape of 3D cracks and the 3D cracking process is still in its early stages and remains a challenging topic in Rock Mechanics. In this study, the Voronoi cells are introduced to reproduce the granular structure of hard rocks, e.g. granite, and Displacement Discontinuity Method (DDM) is used to simulate cracks for its numerical simplicity. By combining Voronoi cells and DDM, the author aims at revealing the mechanism of 3D cracking process and provides some insightful suggestions for rock engineering practice.