Abstract
Understanding the mechanical response and failure of consolidated extra-terrestrial soils requires analyses of the interactions between propagating cracks and the material’s inherent pore structure. In this work, we investigate the fracture behaviour of lunar soil simulant consolidated using microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP). We develop a numerical lattice network model using local beam elements to simulate the nucleation, propagation, branching, and merging of multiple cracks within a space brick subject to uniaxial compression. Our simulations capture the effects of local pores on crack paths as well as provide a means to predict the behaviour of samples with varying global porosity and/or uncertainties in local material stiffness. We identify multiple statistical lattice parameters that encode signatures of single or multiple crack growth events. Our results reveal the complexities involved in the fracture process with porous brittle solids and may easily be adapted to understand failure mechanisms and micro/macro crack evolution in other consolidated structures.
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