Microcrack-induced damage accumulation in brittle rock under dynamic loading

This paper is concerned with the development of a computational constitutive model which simulates the dynamic fracture behavior of brittle rock. The essential feature of this model is the treatment of the dynamic fracture process in rock as a continuous accrual of damage, where the damage mechanism has been attributed to the microcracking in the rock medium. Detailed descriptions of the model and its numerical implementation are given. A method is presented for determining the three additional material constants governing the damage accumulation. All of the numerical algorithms are amenable to vectorization for a vector processing computer and the model is computationally very efficient. A numerical example of an oil-shale blasting experiment is presented and compared to field observations. Results demonstrate that the model is applicable to the prediction of dynamic rock-fracture behavior.