Modeling of rocks under direct shear loading by using discrete element method

Abstract

The geometrical properties are of great concern in characterizing a rock mass. The blocks in a rock mass are formed by flaws with different patterns formed in nature under different geological circumstances. One of the block tessellation models is the Voronoi tessellation, which can be utilized in the discrete element method and used to create realistic rock mass simulation this approach is called UDEC-DM. The UDEC-DM approach has been implemented to model experimental direct shear tests and the results were in good agreement. The effect of degree of persistency of joints inside a direct shear sample was modeled numerically and compared to the behaviour of intact rock. Both closed and opened joints models showed a good agreement with the laboratory results.