Morphologic Interpretation of Rock Failure Mechanisms Under Uniaxial Compression Based on 3D Multiscale High-resolution Numerical Modeling

Multiscale continuous lab oratory observation of the progressive failure process has become a powerful means to reveal the complex failure mechanism of rock. Correspondingly, the representative volume element (RVE)-based models, which are capable of micro/meso- to macro-scale simulations, have been proposed, for instance, the rock failure process analysis (RFPA) program. Limited by the computational bottleneck due to the RVE size, multiscale high-resolution modeling of rock failure process can hardly be implemented, especially for three-dimensional (3D) problems. In this paper, the self-developed parallel RFPA3D code is employed to investigate the failure mechanisms and various fracture morphology of laboratory-scale rectangular prism rock specimens under unconfined uniaxial compression. The specimens consist of either heterogeneous rock with low strength or relatively homogeneous rock with high strength. The numerical simulations, such as the macroscopic fracture pattern and stress–strain responses, can reproduce the well-known phenomena of physical experiments. In particular, the 3D multiscale continuum modeling is carried out to gain new insight into the morphologic interpretation of brittle failure mechanisms, which is calibrated and validated by comparing the actual laboratory experiments and field evidence. The advantages of 3D multiscale high-resolution modeling are demonstrated by comparing the failure modes against 2D numerical predictions by other models. The parallel RVE-based modeling tool in this paper can provide an alternative way to investigate the complicated failure mechanisms of rock.