A 3D GENERALIZED RIGID PARTICLE CONTACT MODEL FOR ROCK FRACTURE

Detailed rigid particle models have been proposed for modeling fracture in quasi-brittle materials. The rigid particle circular models proposed in the literature do not properly reproduce the known rock friction angle and the observed rock tensile strength to compression strength ratio. In this article, a 3D rigid particle contact model, 3D-GCM, is presented which has been developed to study fracture phenomena in rock. The 3D-GCM contact model incorporates in a straightforward manner the force versus displacement relationships of the traditional contact point contact model model, PCM. Furthermore it provides both moment transmission and simple physical constitutive models based on standard force displacement relationships. The 3D-GCM model is validated against known triaxial and Brazilian tests of a granite rock. It is shown that the enhanced rigid particle model leads to a better agreement with the experimental results.