Numerical Simulation of Rock Toughness Testing

The testing method of rock toughness is proposed by the international society of rock mechanics (ISRM), but the results may be influenced by the test pieces, and the details of the crack propagation and the stress intensity factors are not clarified through the testing. Also the experimental test requires tedious works for the preparation of test specimen and economical responsibility. The present study aims to simulate numerically the rock toughness testing which is proposed by ISRM. For this purpose, the authors propose a numerical method which can simulate the experimental testing, and they show the propriety of the proposed method by comparing the results with the experimental and other numerical methods. At the same time, they clarify the details of crack propagation behaviors in rocks, and show the change of the stress intensity factors. The proposed method is based on the displacement-type finite element method, and several techniques are introduced to obtain accurate solution of the mechanical behavior near the crack-tip area.