Numerical Brazilian split test of pre-cracked granite with randomly distributed micro-components
ISSN: 0264-4401
Article publication date: 27 March 2020
Issue publication date: 31 August 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanical behavior and propagation of cracks of numerical granite samples through the Brazilian split test and to provide a reference for predicting the behavior of real granite samples.
Design/methodology/approach
The numerical models of granite containing two fissures are established using the parallel bond model (PBM) and the smooth joint model (SJM) in PFC2D. The peak stresses, number of cracks and anisotropic ratios are obtained to study the influence of the mineral composition and the angle of inclination of rock bridge on the strength, failure mode and deformation characteristics.
Findings
The numerical results obtained show that the mineral composition has a marginal influence on the peak stress. When the angle of inclination of rock bridge β increases, the peak stress drops to its minimum value at β = 90° and then gradually increases to a relatively low level. The behavior of cracks falls into three categories based on the distribution of cracks. By analyzing the stress–strain curve and the process of crack propagation for sample No. 4 with β = 60°, it is found that the process of failure can be divided into four stages and tensile cracks dominate. The anisotropic ratios of peak stress and a number of cracks obtained show that the peak stress is low anisotropic and the number of cracks is medium anisotropic.
Originality/value
This paper presents a numerical simulation method to analyze mechanical behavior and propagation of cracks under different conditions. The proposed method and the results obtained are useful for predicting the behavior of real granite samples in laboratory and engineering projects.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The financial supports provided by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1508501), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 11772116, 11572110) and the Qing Lan Project are gratefully acknowledged.
Citation
Liu, S., Wang, H., Xu, W., Qu, X. and Xie, W.C. (2020), "Numerical Brazilian split test of pre-cracked granite with randomly distributed micro-components", Engineering Computations, Vol. 37 No. 8, pp. 2641-2657. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-03-2019-0123
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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