A mesoscale model for conglomerate and breccia rock fracture

Abstract

A 2D mesomechanical model for describing fracture behavior of Conglomerate and Breccia rocks is presented. The two phases of these rocks, i.e. the clasts and the bind-ing cement, are explicitly described by a Matlab based code. Rock failure is described by a damage-viscoplasticity model based on the Drucker-Prager yield criterion and the rounded Rankine criterion as the tensile cut-off. In the damage model, separate scalar damage variables are applied for tensile and compressive stress regimes. Finite element simulations of uniaxial compression and tension tests demonstrate that the model captures the salient features of the fracture behavior of these rocks.