An extended peridynamic model equipped with a new bond-breakage criterion for mixed-mode fracture in rock-like materials

Abstract

This paper develops a numerical model based on two-parameter extended bond-based peridynamics with a new bond-breakage criterion to simulate mixed-mode fracture in rock-like materials. This model requires only four basic parameters: Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and Mode-I and Mode-II energy release rates. Tensile and shear cracks can be distinguished explicitly from mixed-mode fracture phenomena by decomposing the bond potential into dilatational and deviatoric terms. The m- and δ-convergence studies are first performed on the gypsum specimen with a single flaw subjected to uniaxial compression. The initialization and propagation of wing cracks (tensile cracks), quasi-coplanar and oblique secondary cracks (shear cracks) are successfully captured. As an example application, the crack initiation, propagation and coalescence processes of gypsum specimens with various double-flaw configurations are investigated. Under uniaxial compression, three typical types of crack coalescence patterns characterized by shear cracking or mixed tensile-shear cracking are obtained. In all cases, the numerical results predicted by the developed approach agree well with the experimental observations, both qualitatively and quantitatively.