Numerical Study of the Failure Response and Fracture

Propagation for Rock Specimens with Preexisting Flaws

under Compression
Ramin Pakzad1; Shanyong Wang, M.ASCE2; and Scott Sloan, M.ASCE3
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Abstract: This study incorporated an elastic brittle damage constitutive model into a program for modeling and analysis through a user sub-
routine interface to define a material’s mechanical behavior and considered nonlinear geometric effects. The Weibull distribution function was
adopted to consider the heterogeneity-related uncertainty of the strength and stiffness. The 2D models used were discretized using plain strain
reduced integration elements with the option of element removal after being fully damaged. We verified the accuracy of the user subroutine
code by reproducing the observed failure behavior of an intact sandstone specimen with using previously suggested material parameters. The
reliability of the numerical model was supported by an agreement between pre-existing experimental results and the numerical simulation
results for specimens containing a single fissure with different inclination angles. Two parametric studies were conducted on the failure behav-
ior of a specimen with a single fissure to investigate the effect of (1) the heterogeneity level and (2) the confining pressure. Stiffness and
strength were shown to decrease with increases in the level of heterogeneity. Tensile cracks that appeared in the more homogeneous models
were replaced by scattered damaged elements with increasing heterogeneity. Increasing the confining pressure increased the load capacity of
the specimen, regardless of the inclination of the fissure angle. This trend was related to the amount of damage occurring before reaching the
peak load. The maximum load was typically lower when the route length of the cracks formed before the peak load was larger. To investigate
fracture coalescence behavior, specimens with two parallel fissures were modelled for four different ligament angles. The numerical simula-
tions agree with the available experimental results, indicating that coalescence changed from shear to a tensile mode as the ligament angle
increased. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0001172. © 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Elastic damage constitutive model; Weibull distribution; Fracture propagation and coalescence; Rock failure; Abaqus;
UMAT.

Introduction
Rock materials are well known to be susceptible to quasi-brittle
failure under compressive loading conditions. This type of load-
ing is common to many rock engineering problems, such as rock
slope stability, nuclear waste disposal projects, and dam construc-
tion. Rock materials under compressive loading conditions have
been the subject of numerous studies over many years (Handid
and Hager 1957; Mogi 1971; Peng and Johnson 1972; Haimson
and Chang 2000; Basu et al. 2013; Cvitanovi
c et al. 2015;
Turichshev and Hadjigeorgiou 2016; Ghazvinian et al. 2012,
2013; Bahaaddini et al. 2015). The failure behavior of rocks has
been found to be influenced by a variety of factors, such as their
level of heterogeneity and the presence of pre-existing macro-
cracks. Numerous studies have shown that rock masses with pre-
1
ARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering,
the Univ. of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia. E-mail: ramin
.pakzad@uon.edu.au
2
ARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering,
the Univ. of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia (corresponding
author). E-mail: Shanyong.Wang@newcastle.edu.au
3
ARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering,
the Univ. of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia. E-mail: Scott
.Sloan@newcastle.edu.au
Note. This manuscript was submitted on June 2, 2017; approved on
December 27, 2017; published online on April 26, 2018. Discussion pe-
riod open until September 26, 2018; separate discussions must be submit-
ted for individual papers. This paper is part of the International Journal
of Geomechanics, © ASCE, ISSN 1532-3641.
existing joints or fissures can fail much sooner than intact speci-
mens. This behavior has been experimentally studied by many
researchers, at various sizes and orientations of flaws (Yang et al.
2008, 2009, 2013; Yang and Jing 2011; Yang 2011; Lu et al.
2015). Different fracture propagation patterns have also been
observed physically (Shen et al. 1995; Bobet and Einstein 1998;
Wong et al. 2001; Sagong and Bobet 2002; Li et al. 2005; Wong
and Einstein 2009a, b; Lee and Jeon 2011; Yang and Jing 2011;
Zhao et al. 2016).
Nevertheless, because of the geologically distinct conditions
experienced by rock masses, there is no common consensus on their
failure modes. Ongoing studies in this field have developed with the
advancement of sophisticated computational techniques. Numerical
simulation is an informative way of analyzing fracture and damage,
and it has been employed frequently in recent decades (Aliha et al.
2010, 2013; Manouchehrian and Marji 2012; Zhang and Wong
2012; Haeri et al. 2014; Manouchehrian et al. 2014; Haeri 2015;
Pakzad and Ayatollahi 2015; Pakzad et al. 2016; Cao et al. 2016).
The finite element method is a widely used numerical technique
through which crack propagation phenomena can be studied in three
distinct ways. The first method uses conventional fracture mechan-
ics. Despite its strong theoretical foundation, singularities at crack
tips and the need for rediscretization to capture the moving bounda-
ries of fractures and its shortcomings under mixed mode loading
conditions pose difficulties for this approach (Aliha et al. 2010,
2013). Although research has sought to overcome these deficien-
cies through cohesive elements, this has been limited to problems
with predefined crack-propagation routes (Zhang et al. 2010;
Su et al. 2010). Another technique for crack propagation analyses

© ASCE 04018070-1 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070

 is damage-based fracture modeling, which does not have the
abovementioned weakness and is consistent with many useful
material features, such as plasticity and heterogeneity (Wang
et al. 2012a, b; Wu and Wong 2013). Furthermore, this method
can consider the concurrent influence of adjacent cracks in a net-
work of fractures.
Conceptually, the overall failure of rock masses is rooted in the
behavior of their microstructure, where microcracks nucleate and
lead to partial loss of material. The local accumulation of micro-
cracks results in the local failure of material and the appearance of
meso-scale cracks. The propagation of such cracks produces macro-
scale fractures whose coalescence can lead to overall failure. This
transitional process, from the micro- to the macrolevel, cannot be
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
accurately reproduced through macroscopic phenomenological
constitutive models unless many complexities are incorporated.
Thus, rock-type materials can be assumed to comprise a network of
tiny cells, each of which has its own properties. This nonuniform
distribution of material properties in rock elements is attributed to
the random distribution of pre-existing microlevel cracks, voids,
and minerals. This is the concept of a representative volume ele-
ment (RVE), which links the micro- and macroscales. Exceeding a
stress limit, the mesoscopic elements begin to degrade irreversibly
until they can no longer sustain any stress. This notion has been
shown to be a powerful method for reproducing the nonlinear
behavior of heterogeneous geomaterials and has formed the basis of
a large number of numerical investigations on the failure behavior
of intact and flawed quasi-brittle specimens in recent years (Tang
et al. 2000; Wong et al. 2002; Zhu and Tang 2004; Feng et al. 2006;
Li and Tang 2015).
In this study, we examined the mechanics of damage for meso-
scale elements with random material properties. To capture the real
behavior of material, different damage-based constitutive models
have been proposed. For example, defining damage as a tensor
rather than a scaler includes the anisotropic effect in the simulation
(Lemaitre and Desmorat 2005), or one can take into account the
effect of damage on the dilatancy behavior of a geo-material, such
as sandstone, by considering a two-scale damage model (Lemaitre
and Desmorat 2005). In this study a one-scale damage model was
used for simplicity. The decrease of the damaged element’s stiff-
ness under the effect of the damage parameter was explicitly
included, while the strength degradation of the element due to dam-
age was implicitly considered in the damaged evolution formula-
tion. After calibrating the material model with the test results of an
intact sandstone specimen under uniaxial loading (Yang and Jing
2011), we assess the reliability of our numerical simulation by com-
puting the stress–strain response for specimens containing a single
fissure with various inclinations. The effects of the confining stress
and heterogeneity level on the strength failure of the specimens and
fracture pattern were investigated by conducting two series of para-
metric analyses. We also investigated the fracture coalescence of
specimens containing two parallel fissures for combinations of fis-
sures and ligament angles.
A numerical simulation was performed using Abaqus, which
allows users to extend the software capability through its subrou-
tine interfaces. Because Abaqus does not have built-in constitu-
tive models that cover all the facets of the abovementioned
behavior, we wrote a FORTRAN code compatible with the
UMAT (user subroutine interface to define a material’s mechani-
cal behavior) of Abaqus to perform the analyses. In the following
sections of this paper, the governing and constitutive equations
are presented, followed by a description of the numerical setup.
Then, the results obtained from the numerical simulations will
be discussed and the highlights of the study will be summarized.
© ASCE 04018070-2
Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070
Methodology
In the framework of the finite element method, the equilibrium
equation shown in Eq. (1) was implicitly solved by the Abaqus
standard solver to obtain the displacement degrees of freedom for
every node in the model under static conditions.
∂s ij
þ Fj ¼ 0 (1)
∂xj
The components of strain [Eq. (2)] are also calculated from the
displacement field and then sent to the UMAT subroutine, accom-
panied by other state variables, at the beginning of every increment.


1 ∂ui ∂uj
ɛij ¼ þ (2)
2 ∂xj ∂xi
The user must use a constitutive model relating stresses to strains
at the integration point(s) of each element.
Constitutive Model
In this study, the elastic damage constitutive relationship of the
meso-scale elements was incorporated in Abaqus through its
UMAT subroutine interface. The material properties were distrib-
uted among elements using a statistical distribution function. This
method, known as the statistical meso-damage mechanical method
(SMDMM), was applied to finite elements in the model to simulate
the trans-scale progress of failure using the RVE concept (Li and
Tang 2015). In contrast to phenomenological models with complex
formulations to account for nonlinearity, the SMDMM was based
on linear elasticity. Nevertheless, it was capable of reproducing
nonlinearity by considering heterogeneity and by connecting the
elastic modulus to the amount of damage.
Elastic Regime
Following Hooke’s law, the principal stresses and strains were cor-
related through Eq. (3), in which λ ¼
E=ð1  2
Þð1 þ
Þ,
G ¼ E=ð1 þ
Þ,
is Poisson’s ratio and E is the current Young’s
modulus.
s ij ¼ 2Gɛij þ λɛjj ði; j ¼ 1; 2; 3Þ (3)
The stiffness began to degrade gradually as soon as the stress
state meets the damage surface. This occurs incrementally by the
evolution of the damage parameter (D) in Eq. (4), where E and E0
represent the updated and initial stiffnesses of the mesoscopic ele-
ment, respectively.
E ¼ ð1  DÞE0 (4)
The damage initiation criteria and damage evolution formulation
will be discussed in the next subsection.
Damage Initiation and Evolution
In contrast to metals, in which crack initiation is the result of tensile
loading, cracks in rock-type materials have been shown to originate
due to compressive loading, as well. Therefore, the damage surface
is defined by two individual criteria: the tensile failure criterion and
the shear (Mohr Coulomb) failure criterion, with priority given to
the former. First, the maximum principal stress (s 1 ) was compared
Int. J. Geomech.
 with the uniaxial tensile strength of element (ft0 ) according to Eq. until the end of the analysis. Fully damaged elements are removed
(5), under the condition that the shear criterion is less critical than virtually by assigning to their stiff ness the small value of 1:05 .
the tensile criterion. Then, the damaged elements were deleted by Abaqus in the next in-
crement. The line-search technique incorporated in Abaqus was
s 1  ft0 (5) used to optimize the solution procedure.
The effects of microcracking are considered in the material
If the tensile failure criterion was met, the damage parameter behavior of elements by reducing the stiffness and strength of the
was calculated using Eq. (6), depending on the value of equivalent damaged element before reaching the fully–damaged condition.
strain (~ɛ ) at the end of the current increment (Wang et al. 2012a, b). Before this stage, a damaged element can transfer the induced stress
8 to its neighboring elements. However, the effect of crack closure
>
> 0 ~ɛ < ɛt0 under compressive circumstances is not included in this study.
>
>
< ftr When the number of fully-damaged elements increases, particularly
D¼ 1 0 ɛt0  ~ɛ < ɛtu (6) after peak load, large deformation occurs (resulting in the rigid body
>
> s
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

>
>
1
rotation of some elements). Therefore, the stress distribution
: ~ɛ  ɛtu
1 throughout the model will not be correct unless the global stiffness
matrix and the stress tensor are incrementally updated in the frame-
In this equation, the equivalent strain at which the tensile dam- work of the local coordinate system of elements, resulting in a geo-
age surface was met for the first time was symbolized by ɛt0 , and s 01 metric nonlinearity in the finite element system of equations. On the
denoted the maximum principal stress calculated by the initial elas- other hand, with increase in the local density of the fully damaged
tic modulus. The residual tensile strength and ultimate tensile strain elements, the nodes attached only to the fully-damaged elements, ex-
were defined as ftr ¼ g ft0 and ɛtu ¼ h ɛt0 , respectively. The equiva- hibit no resistance and are free to discontinuously displace every-
lent strain corresponding to the tensile damage evolution was where in the 2D/3D space. The discontinuous free movement of
assumed to be a combination of the principal strains, as follows nodes distorted the relevant elements, making discontinuous rotation
(Wang et al. 2012a, b): of the local coordinate system of the elements. As a result, the finite
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi element system of equations became so nonlinear that the solution
~ɛ ¼ hɛ1 i2 þ hɛ2 i2 þ hɛ3 i2 (7) could not converge. To overcome this numerical difficulty, the fully
damaged elements were removed from the model. In this case, a
concern remained about inaccurate stress distribution when the free
The Macaulay brackets hi are defined by Eq. (8): surfaces generated by the removal of the fully-damaged elements
( come together under compression. However, in our simulation,
x x0
hxi ¼ (8) compared to the size of removed elements, the displacements were
0 x<0 so small that almost no overlap occurred between the elements of the
free surfaces of fractured area, except for some cases that had spal-
The shear damage criterion is defined by Eq. (9): ling at the outside boundary of the models. In reality, the separated
parts fall due to the gravitational acceleration, which did not affect
1 þ sin f the stress distribution in the remained specimen under compressive
c s 1  s 3  fc0 c ¼ (9)
1  sin f loading. In general, the model would be more accurate if the contact
could be included in the numerical model. Unfortunately, in Abaqus,
where w , fc0 , s 1 , and s 3 are the internal frictional angle, uniaxial the standard (v6.14) defining contact for the free surfaces generated
compressive strength, and maximum and minimum principal during the solution process is not possible.
stresses, respectively. A simplified version of the constitutive law elaborated above is
When the shear criterion was satisfied, the damage parameter illustrated in Fig. 1 for the uniaxial case. The strength of the element
was calculated via Eq. (10): decreases to a fraction of the initial value after the initial damage
8 occurs, and the element is eliminated in tension when its tensile
>
<0 ~ɛ > ɛc0 equivalent strain exceeds the ultimate tensile strain. According to
D¼ fcr (10) previous literature, both the stiffness and strength of rock decrease
>
:1 ~ɛ  ɛc0 during the damage process, whereas Poisson’s ratio increases as a
c s 01  s 03

where fcr ¼ g fc0 , ~ɛ ¼ ɛ3 , ɛc0 is the equivalent strain at the moment

that the shear failure criterion meets the current strength of the
element for the first time, and s 01 and s 03 are the maximum and
minimum principal stresses of the intact element calculated by
the initial Young’s modulus. The convention of Abaqus is fol-
lowed in writing the abovementioned relationships such that the
stress and strain components are negative in compression and
positive in tension.
Once the damage parameter was obtained, the stress tensor is
updated in UMAT according to the modified elastic modulus in Eq.
(4). Iterating to find the solution for the equilibrium equation,
Abaqus sent new strain increments to UMAT after the stress redis-
tribution. The iterations were repeated until equilibrium is reached Fig. 1. Constitutive law of elastic damage for a mesoscopic element
and no further elements undergo damage (i.e., the solution con- under uniaxial tension and compression
verges for the increment). This process progressed incrementally

© ASCE 04018070-3 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070

 result of cracking (Heap et al. 2009). The alteration of material
properties has been shown to be irreversible, as shown in the Kaiser
effect (Lavrov 2003, 2005). In this study, the damage-induced dila-
tion effect (increase in Poisson’s ratio with the damage parameter)
has been ignored for simplicity.
Viscous Regularization
The implicit integration approach used in UMAT encounters con-
vergence problems for material models with abrupt softening
behavior, such as what is presented in this paper. A generalization
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
of the viscous regularization scheme of Duvant and Lions (1976)
was used to overcome these difficulties. This regularization scheme
resulted in a positive definite tangent stiffness matrix, provided the
time increments are sufficiently small. It was assumed that the dam-
age parameter in Eq. (4) could be substituted with a viscous damage
variable, defined as follows:
1
D_v ¼ ðD  Dv Þ (11)
j
where j is a viscosity coefficient representing the relaxation
time of the viscous system and Dv is the viscous-damage

Fig. 2. Typical random distribution of Young’s modulus: (a) spatial assignment of Young’s modulus to elements; (b) histogram of Young’s modulus
for different homogeneity indexes

© ASCE 04018070-4 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070

 variable. The viscosity coefficient should be set sufficiently
small relative to the characteristic time increment. The results
obtained using this method were acceptable, because the solu-
tion of the viscous system relaxes to that of the inviscid system
as the ratio of the time increment to the viscosity coefficient
reaches infinity.
be modelled statistically via the Weibull distribution function,
using the following formula (Tang et al. 2000; Wang et al.
2012a, b):
Table 1. Meso-Scale Material Properties Calibrated for the Sandstone
from Linyi City

Random Distribution of Stiffness and Strength Initial Yang et al.

Parameter calibration (2015)
In the application of the SMDMM, each element in the finite
element model was assumed to be an RVE with randomly Homogeneity index (m) 10 10
assigned material properties. The heterogeneity of the rock can Mean elastic modulus (E0 ) 34.5 (GPa) 35.0 (GPa)
Internal friction angle ( w ) 30 (degrees) 40 (degrees)
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Mean compressive strength (fc0 ) 380 (MPa) 370 (MPa)

Ratio of compressive to tensile 10 8
strength (fc0 =ft0 )
Poisson’s ratio (
) 0.28 0.25
Ultimate tensile strain coefficient ( h ) 2 1.5
Confining pressure ( g ) 0.2 0.1

Fig. 3. Schematic representation of a rectangular block: (a) a single

fissure; (b) two coplanar fissures

Fig. 5. Ultimate failure mode of the intact specimen under uniaxial

Fig. 4. Schematic representation of the applied load and boundary compressive loading: (a) experimental results [reprinted from Yang and
conditions: (a) first step; (b) second step Jing (2011), with permission]; (b) numerical results (current study)

© ASCE 04018070-5 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070


 "
 #
m u m1 u m
f ðuÞ ¼ exp  (12)
u0 u0 u0

where u corresponds to the random material property of the ele-

ment and m is the shape factor of the Weibull distribution function
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Fig. 8. Effect of the homogeneity index value on the stress-strain

curves of the specimen with a ¼ 45
Fig. 6. Stress–strain curves for sandstone under uniaxial compressive
loading: (a) experimental results [reprinted from Yang and Jing (2011),
with permission]; (b) numerical results (current study)

Fig. 7. Effect of the initial seed on the failure behavior of the specimen Fig. 9. Effect of the homogeneity index on damage propagation in the
with (a ¼ 15 ): (a) stress–strain curve; (b) fracture pattern specimen containing a single fissure with a ¼ 45

© ASCE 04018070-6 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070

 determining the dispersal of u around u0 . u approaches the value
of u0 as the value of m increases. In this study, the elastic modulus
and strength were considered to vary among elements with the
same homogeneity indexes (m) but different initial seeds. Fig. 2
illustrates the random distribution of Young’s modulus among
meso-scale elements alongside curves representing the influence
of the homogeneity index on the randomization. The inverse of
the Weibull cumulative probability function was used to produce
the random variable from the random number generated by the
Monte Carlo method.
Model Setup
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
sequence. We also considered the geometric nonlinearity effect,
because elements may rotate with respect to their original position.
Except for the intact specimen, one or two parallel fissures with a
predefined inclination angle a were cut from the 2D models. The fis-
sure lengths, 2a, ligament lengths, 2b, and fissure thicknesses were
constants equal to 15 mm, 18 mm, and 2:5 mm, respectively. For
specimens containing two parallel fissures, the ligament angle b
determines the relative location of fissures.
In this study, two types of loading conditions were applied: uni-
axial and biaxial. Fig. 4 schematically illustrates the load and
boundary conditions applied in two successive steps. The uniaxial
loading condition is the special case of this general loading in which
the confining pressure P is equal to zero.

Both a rectangular block containing a single fissure (Yang and Jing
2011) and a rectangular block containing two parallel fissures used
by (Yang 2011) were modelled (Fig. 3). The number of elements in
the former with dimensions of 60 mm  120 mm was approxi-
mately 135  270  36;000, whereas the latter, which was
80 mm in width and 160 mm in height, was discretized by approxi-
mately 160  320  51;000 elements. Two-dimensional plain
strain analyses were conducted using first-order, reduced integration
elements with hourglass control. The element deletion option was
employed to delete fully damaged elements from the computation
We calibrated our numerical model by minimizing the deviation
of its results from those obtained from a uniaxial test on sandstone
from Linyi City, Shandong Province, China (Yang and Jing 2011).
Readers interested in the calibration procedure are referred to
Pakzad et al. (2016). We subsequently discovered that such a cali-
bration had already been performed for the same sandstone (Yang
et al. 2015). The results presented in this paper are based on the sec-
ond group of calibrated parameters represented in Table 1.
After validating the numerical simulation procedure, two series
of parametric studies were conducted to investigate the effect of the

Fig. 10. Stress–strain curves of fissure-included specimens under biaxial loading conditions: (a) (m ¼ 10:0Þ (a ¼ 0 ); (b) (m ¼ 10:0Þ (a ¼ 30 );
(c) (m ¼ 10:0Þ (a ¼ 60 ); (d) (m ¼ 10:0Þ (a ¼ 90 )

© ASCE 04018070-7 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070

 homogeneity index m and confining pressure P on the failure behav-
ior of a specimen with a single fissure. A homogeneity index of
{1.5, 2, 3.5, 6.5, 10} and zero confining pressure were used for the
specimen containing a fissure with an inclination angle of a ¼ 45 .
While maintaining a homogeneity index equal to 10, we performed
additional analyses for specimens with inclination angles of
{0 ; 15 ; 30 ; 45 ; 60 ; 75 ; 90 } and under lateral pressures of
{0, 10, 20, 30} MPa.
In the last part of our study, we investigated the propagation of
cracks and their coalescence in specimens with two parallel fissures.
To this end, we performed simulations of the behavior of specimens
under uniaxial loading conditions for a fissure inclination angle of
a ¼ 45 and four different ligament angles, b ¼ 45 . Then, the nu-
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
a ¼ 45 under uniaxial loading conditions for several homogeneity
indexes. The numerical axial stress–strain curves for different ho-
mogeneity indexes are shown in Fig. 8, which indicates that the
strength and stiffness both increase with increasing values of the ho-
mogeneity index. For example, analyses with homogeneity indexes
of 1.1 and 10 resulted in peak loads of approximately 24 and 120,
respectively. Ductile failure is more noticeable for specimens with
lower homogeneity indexes, and the load capacity of the specimen
gradually decreases for cases with homogeneity indexes less than 2.
By contrast, samples with homogeneity indexes greater than 3.5

merical results and available experimental results were compared.

The numerical results will be presented and discussed in the follow-
ing sections.

Validation of the Numerical Results

First, we numerically reproduced the failure behavior of an intact

sandstone specimen under compressive loading conditions using
the calibrated parameters suggested by Yang et al. (2015). The com-
puted ultimate failure mode and stress-strain curve were generally
comparable to those obtained experimentally (Figs. 5 and 6), thus
demonstrating the reliability of the code used.
To further check the numerical simulation, we performed analy-
ses of models containing fissures 15 mm long at different inclina-
tion angles. Fig. 6 compares the experimentally and numerically
obtained stress-strain curves for the intact and fissure-included Fig. 11. Influence of the inclination angle on the ultimate strength of
specimens. the specimens with a single fissure under different confining pressures
The experimental results [Fig. 6(a)] indicate that nonlinear
behavior occurs at the initial stage of loading. This nonlinearity,
which is attributable to the closure of voids and microcracks,
could not be captured by the constitutive modewl in this study.
However, the elastic moduli computed numerically were
approximately the same as those obtained experimentally. With
regard to the type of failure, the sudden drop in the load capacity
(brittle failure) of the specimens was duplicated by numerical
analyses. The numerical results confirmed that the load capacity
of the intact specimen was greater than those of the fissure-
included specimens. The computed peak loads were very similar
to those obtained from the experiments, except for the case of a
fissure inclination angle of 15°. This discrepancy could be due to
the heterogeneity of the material. To investigate this, we con-
ducted four additional analyses for this case (a ¼ 15 ) with sim-
ilar inputs except for the initial seeds used in the random distri-
bution of the elastic modulus and strength parameters. The peak
load obtained from the second case (s2) was very similar to the
experimental result (see Fig. 7). Different distributions of the
material properties (different initial seeds) yielded different fail-
ure behavior in terms of the stress–strain response or fracture
pattern, which confirmed our hypothesis on the influence of the
distributions of the material properties on the failure behavior of
the specimens.

Failure Response of a Specimen Containing a

Single Fissure

Effect of the Heterogeneity Level

Fig. 12. Fracture pattern immediately after the peak load for different
To investigate the influence of the degree of heterogeneity, we confining pressures and inclination angles
examined the behavior of a specimen with an inclination angle of

© ASCE 04018070-8 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070

 exhibited a slightly brittle response. An intermediate response was
expected when the homogeneity index was between 2 and 3.5. The
diversity in the stress-strain responses of the specimens could be
associated with the different type of cracks forming for different ho-
mogeneity indexes. This was evaluated by the study of the damaged
element patterns obtained in separate frames for different homoge-
neity indexes (Fig. 9).
Fig. 9 shows the nucleation and propagation of cracks in a
specimen with an inclination angle of 45 and different homoge-
neity indexes. When the homogeneity index was 6.5 or 10, two
smooth tensile wing cracks nucleated simultaneously and propa-
gated from the end corners of the two fissures. The length of the
wing cracks is shorter for a homogeneity index of 6.5. Then, two
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
exhibited an antitensile crack. For both cases, far field cracks
were also formed after peak load.
The fracturing process for homogeneity indexes of 2 and 3.5 dif-
fered from the process for m ¼ 6:5 in three main aspects. First,
some damaged elements began to scatter in the model. Second, the
type of both nonsmooth tensile cracks was antitensile. Finally, the
length of the smooth tensile cracks continually decreased. Smooth
wing cracks nearly disappeared for the lower homogeneity indexes
of 1.1 and 1.5. Therefore, the sudden decrease in the stress-strain
curves for the specimens with higher homogeneity indexes may be
associated with the appearance of wing cracks, which are not
observed for the more heterogeneous cases. Moreover, the scatter-
ing of damaged elements increased with increases in the heteroge-

unsmooth tensile cracks nucleated, one of which began to propa-
gate vertically. Tensile cracks deviatde from their initial direc-
tion, which was parallel to the loading direction, particularly after
the specimen reached its maximum load capacity. This behavior
could be associated with the uneven distribution of material prop-
erties, as the stress state and strength properties together deter-
mined damage patterns at every stage of loading. The second
crack was the same as the first for specimens with a homogeneity
index of 10, while specimens with a homogeneity index of 6.5
neity level when the homogeneity index was 1.1 or 1.5. As a result,
the final pattern of damage had two antitensile cracks with damaged
elements around them.
Effect of the Confining Stress
To understand the effect of the confining pressure on the failure
behavior, we performed numerical simulations for different incli-
nation angles in which the confining pressure was increased to

Fig. 13. Experimental results for fracture propagation and coalescence in the sandstone specimen containing two coplanar fissures; (a) s 1 =
60.67 MPa « 1 = 2.377 10−3; (b) s 1 = 94.72 MPa « 1 = 3.329 10−3; (c) s 1 = 103.61 MPa « 1 = 3.581 10−3; (d) s 1 = 107.13 MPa = s c « 1 = 3.651 10−3;
(e) s 1 = 104.03 MPa « 1 = 3.767 10−3; (f) s 1 = 104.07 MPa « 1 = 3.979 10−3; (g) s 1 = 92.37 MPa « 1 = 4.008 10−3; (h) s 1 = 101.48 MPa « 1 =
4.60 10−3; (i) ultimate failure

© ASCE 04018070-9 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070

 30 MPa in increments of 10 MPa. The effect of the confining pres-
sure on the stress strain response of the specimen with a single fis-
sure for several inclination angles is illustrated in Fig. 10. The
results show that the ultimate strength of the specimen increases
with increasing confining pressure, regardless of the fissure incli-
nation angle. The elastic stiffness appears to be largely insensitive
to both the confining pressure and the inclination angle.
To investigate the influence of the inclination angle on the ulti-
mate strength, the peak strength versus the inclination angle was
plotted for various confining pressures (Fig. 11). Fig. 11 shows
that, despite some fluctuations, the ultimate strength generally
increases with increases in the inclination angle from 0° to 90°.
However, the variation in the ultimate strength with the inclina-
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
inclination angles by Yang (2011). Fig. 13 shows several frames of
the failure of the specimen with the same fissures and ligament in-
clination angles (a ¼ b ¼ 45 Þ: According to this figure, two wing
cracks propagated from the upper and lower corners of the right-
hand side fissure [Figs. 13(a–c)]. Before the peak load of approxi-
mately 107 MPa was reached, a shear crack in the lower corner of
the same fissure appeared, followed by an antitensile crack forming
in the upper corner of the left side of the second fissure [Fig. 13(d)].
Shear-type fracture coalescence occurred in the ligament region,
followed by the appearance of new tensile fractures near and
away from the fissures until the ultimate failure of the specimen
[Figs. 13(e–i)].

tion angle differed for varying confining pressures. For example,

when the inclination angle increased from 0° to 15°, the ultimate
strength of the specimen with a confining pressure of 10 MPa
increased from 120 MPa to approximately 127 MPa, which con-
trastd with the uniaxial case in which the ultimate strength
decreased from 110 MPa to approximately 97 MPa. Compared to
the specimens with confining pressures of 0 and 30 MPa, the ulti-
mate strength of the specimens with confining pressures of 10 and
20 MPa change in a different manner when the inclination angle
increased from 75° to 90°. This variation in behavior could be due
to the combined effect of the confining pressure and the specimen
inclination angle on the stress redistribution, which in turn influ-
enced the sequence of damaged elements before the peak load
was reached.
Fig. 12 illustrates the fracture pattern obtained immediately
after the peak load was reached for different combinations of con-
fining pressure and inclination angles. The cracks appearing
before the peak load are marked with red ovals. In general, the
route length of the cracks formed before the peak load may be
associated with the maximum load resisted by the specimen, so
that the maximum load was smaller when the route length of the
cracks formed before the peak load was larger. Deviations from
this rule could be due to partially damaged elements, which are
not shown in Fig. 12. In fact, that portion of the external energy
contributing to damage does not participate in the load-bearing
mechanism.

Fracture Propagation and Coalescence in the

Specimen Containing Two Parallel Fissures

The failure deformation of sandstone specimens containing two co-

planar fissures was experimentally investigated for different

Fig. 14. Experimental results for the axial stress–strain curve of the Fig. 15. Numerical results for the sandstone specimen containing two
sandstone specimen containing two coplanar fissures (a ¼ b ¼ 45 Þ coplanar fissures: (a) fracture propagation and coalescence (a ¼ b ¼
[reprinted from Yang (2011), with permission] 45 Þ; (b) axial stress-strain curve (a ¼ b ¼ 45 Þ

© ASCE 04018070-10 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070

Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Fig. 16. Fracture propagation and coalescence in the sandstone specimens containing two parallel fissures (a ¼ 45 Þ for different ligament
angles

The stress–strain curves marked on frames (a) through (i) are
shown in Fig. 14. As the fracture propagated, the stress level
increases to the peak load, representing stable fracture propagation.
After peak load was reached, local unstable fracturing results in a
fluctuating stress state from (d) to (h). Overall failure of the speci-
men occurred within a short period of time, when frame (h) devel-
ops to frame (i). The results of our numerical simulation for this
physical test are presented in Fig. 15.
Whereas the wing crack lengths observed in Yang’s experiment
were approximately equal, our numerical simulation produced wing
cracks whose lengths differ considerably [Fig. 15(a)]. This differ-
ence occurs because, in contrast to the experimental results where
wing cracks form at only one fissure, four wing cracks begin propa-
gating from the two end corners of each fissure in the numerical
model. Simultaneous growth of internal wing cracks affected the
stress redistribution around the tip of each internal wing crack,
thereby confining further growth. The local instability observed in
Yang’s experiment was not repeated in our numerical simulations,
because no further tensile cracks appeared after peak load. As a
result, discrepancies exist between the numerical and experimental
axial stress–strain curves [Figs. 14 and 15(b)]. The numerical
results predicted a shear-type coalescence in the ligament area,
which confirms the experimental results by Yang. This coalescence
occurs immediately after the peak load, with a value similar to that
obtained experimentally.
Other types of coalescence have also been reported, by depend-
ing on the relative location of the pre-existing fissures (Shen et al.
1995). In this study, we controlled the relative position of the fis-
sures by the ligament angle ( b ). Three additional numerical models
with ligament angles of b ¼ f75 ; 105 ; 135 g were analyzed.
As for the specimen with a ligament angle of b ¼ 45 , the abrupt
shear-induced post-peak failure of the specimens was preceded by
the stable propagation of four wing cracks from the end corners of
the pre-existing fissures (Fig. 16).
According to Fig. 16, shear-type coalescence was expected
for the specimen with a ligament angle of b ¼ 75 , whereas ten-
sile coalescence was predicted for the other two ligament angles.
These results are comparable to those obtained by Shen and his
colleagues for precracked gypsum specimens under uniaxial
compression, where shear coalescence transitioned to tensile co-
alescence as the ligament angle increased and the pre-existing
fissures overlapped (Shen et al. 1995). The reuslts of our numeri-
cal simulations confirm the notion that additional coalescence
by secondary fractures occurs when the overlap between the fis-
sures is significant. The role of overlap between joints in the fail-
ure mode of rock masses has been noted by other researchers

© ASCE 04018070-11 Int. J. Geomech.

Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070

 (Sarfarazi et al. 2014; Gehle and Kutter 2003; Prudencio and Jan
2007).
Conclusions
In this study, the element removal option of Abaqus standard
(v6.14) was used to numerically investigate the failure behavior of a
sandstone specimen containing a single fissure. Using the UMAT
interface of Abaqus, a material user subroutine was written based
on an elastic brittle damage constitutive law with the Weibull distri-
bution of meso-scale stiffness and strength parameters. The consti-
tutive model and how it functions within the Abaqus framework
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
were described in detail. Numerical analyses were performed using
plain strain reduced integration elements with hourglass control and
incorporated geometric nonlinearity. The written subroutine was
verified, and the numerical model was validated by comparing its
predictions with available experimental results for sandstone
specimens.
Parametric studies were conducted on specimens containing one
or two pre-existing fissures. The following conclusions were
deduced from the numerical results.
• The heterogeneity level had a considerable influence on the
failure behavior of the fissure-included specimen in terms of
both the stress-strain curve and fracture pattern. Specimen
stiffness and strength decreased with increases in the heteroge-
neity level. The tensile cracks generated in less heterogeneous
models began to disappear, whereas more heterogeneous mod-
els with homogeneity indexes ranging from 1.1 to 2 experi-
enced scattered damaged elements.
• Although applying a confining pressure led a specimen with
the same inclination angle to resist a higher load, the specimen
elastic stiffness appeared to be largely insensitive to the con-
fining pressure. Moreover, the fissure inclination angle had a
minor direct effect on the specimen elastic stiffness.
• Despite some local decreases, the peak load generally
increased with an increase in the fissure inclination angle from
0° to 90°. The maximum load was typically lower when the
route length of the cracks formed before the peak load was
larger.
• For a specimen containing two parallel fissures, the mode of
fracture coalescence changed from tensile to shear as the liga-
ment inclination angle increased from 45° to 135°.
Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was partially supported by ARC
Future Fellowship Grant FT140100019 and ARC Discovery
Project Grant DP140100509, for which the authors are grateful.
References
Abaqus [Computer software]. SIMULIA, Providence, RI.
Aliha, M. R. M., Ayatollahi, M. R., Smith, D. J., and Pavier, M. J. (2010).
“Geometry and size effects on fracture trajectory in a limestone rock
under mixed mode loading.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 77(11), 2200–2212.
Aliha, M. R. M., Pakzad, R., and Ayatollahi, M. R. (2013). “Numerical
analyses of a cracked straight-through flattened Brazilian disk specimen
under mixed-mode loading.” J. Eng. Mech., 140(1), 219–224.
Bahaaddini, M., Hagan, P., Mitra, R., and Hebblewhite, B. K. (2015).
“Numerical study of the mechanical behavior of nonpersistent jointed
rock masses.” Int. J. Geomech., 16(1), 04015035.
© ASCE 04018070-12
Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070
Basu, A., Mishra, D. A., and Roychowdhury, K. (2013). “Rock failure
modes under uniaxial compression, Brazilian, and point load tests.” Bull
. Eng. Geol. Environ., 72(3–4), 457–475.
Bobet, A., and Einstein, H. H. (1998). “Fracture coalescence in rock-type
materials under uniaxial and biaxial compression.” Int. J. Rock Mech.
Min. Sci., 35(7), 863–888.
Cao, R. H., Cao, P., Fan, X., Xiong, X., and Lin, H. (2016). “An experimen-
tal and numerical study on mechanical behavior of ubiquitous-joint brit-
tle rock-like specimens under uniaxial compression.” Rock Mech. Rock
Eng., 49(11), 4319–4338.
Cvitanovi
c, N. Š., Nikoli
c, M., and Ibrahimbegovi
c, A. (2015). “Influence
of specimen shape deviations on uniaxial compressive strength of lime-
stone and similar rocks.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 80, 357–372.
Duvant, G., and Lions, J. L. (1976). Inequalities in mechanics and physics,
Springer Science and Business Media, Berlin.
Feng, X.-T., Pan, P.-Z., and Zhou, H. (2006). “Simulation of the rock micro-
fracturing process under uniaxial compression using an elasto-plastic
cellular automaton.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 43(7), 1091–1108.
Gehle, C., and Kutter, H. K. (2003). “Breakage and shear behavior of inter-
mittent rock joints.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 40(5), 687–700.
Ghazvinian, A., Nejati, H. R., Sarfarazi, V., and Hadei, M. R. (2013).
“Mixed mode crack propagation in low brittle rock-like materials.”
Arabian J. Geosci., 6(11), 4435–4444.
Ghazvinian, A., Sarfarazi, V., Schubert, W., and Blümel, M. (2012). “A
study of the failure mechanism of planar non-persistent open joints
using PFC2D.” Rock Mech. Rock Eng., 45(5), 677–693.
Haeri, H. (2015). “Crack analysis of pre-cracked brittle specimens under
biaxial compression.” J. Min. Sci., 51(6), 1091–1100.
Haeri, H., Shahriar, K., Marji, M. F., and Moarefvand, P. (2014).
“Experimental and numerical study of crack propagation and coales-
cence in pre-cracked rock-like disks.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 67,
20–28.
Haimson, B., and Chang, C. (2000). “A new true triaxial cell for testing me-
chanical properties of rock, and its use to determine rock strength and
deformability of Westerly granite.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci.,
37(1–2), 285–296.
Handid, J., and Hager, R. V., Jr. (1957). “Experimental deformation of sedi-
mentary rocks under confining pressure: Tests at room temperature on
dry samples.” Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull., 41(1), 1–50.
Heap, M. J., Vinciguerra, S., and Meredith, P. G. (2009). “The evolution of
elastic moduli with increasing crack damage during cyclic stressing of a
basalt from Mt. Etna volcano.” Tectonophysics, 471(1–2), 153–160.
Lavrov, A. (2003). “The Kaiser effect in rocks: Principles and stress estima-
tion techniques.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 40(2), 151–171.
Lavrov, A. (2005). “Fracture-induced physical phenomena and memory
effects in rocks: A review.” Strain, 41(4), 135–149.
Lee, H., and Jeon, S. (2011). “An experimental and numerical study of frac-
ture coalescence in pre-cracked specimens under uniaxial compression.”
Int. J. Solids Struct., 48(6), 979–999.
Lemaitre, J., and Desmorat, R. (2005). Engineering damage mechanics,
Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Li, G., and Tang, C. A. (2015). “A statistical meso-damage mechanical
method for modeling trans-scale progressive failure process of rock.”
Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 74, 133–150.
Li, Y.-P., Chen, L.-Z., and Wang, Y.-H. (2005). “Experimental research on
pre-cracked marble under compression.” Int. J. Solids Struct., 42(1),
2505–2516.
Lu, Y., Wang, L., and Elsworth, D. (2015). “Uniaxial strength and failure in
sandstone containing a pre-existing 3-D surface flaw.” Int. J. Fract.,
194(1), 59–79.
Manouchehrian, A., and Marji, M. F. (2012). “Numerical analysis of
confinement effect on crack propagation mechanism from a flaw in
a pre-cracked rock under compression.” Acta Mech. Sin., 28(5),
1389–1397.
Manouchehrian, A., Sharifzadeh, M., Marji, M. F., and Gholamnejad, J.
(2014). “A bonded particle model for analysis of the flaw orientation
effect on crack propagation mechanism in brittle materials under com-
pression.” Arch. Civil Mech. Eng., 14(1), 40–52.
Mogi, K. (1971). “Fracture and flow of rocks under high triaxial compres-
sion.” J. Geophys. Res., 76(5), 1255–1269.
Int. J. Geomech.
 Pakzad, R., and Ayatollahi, M. R. (2015). “A comprehensive study on crack
tip parameters of modified ring specimen for mixed-mode fracture
toughness tests on brittle materials.” Geotech. Test. J., 39, 144–156.
Pakzad, R., Wang, S. Y., and Sloan, S. W. (2016). Numerical investigation
of damage propagation in heterogeneous quasi-brittle materials. Int.
Conf. on Geo-Mechanics, Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources. Monash
Univ., Melbourne, Australia.
Peng, S., and Johnson, A. M. (1972). “Crack growth and faulting in cylin-
drical specimens of Chelmsford granite.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci.
Geomech. Abstr., 9(1), 37–86.
Prudencio, M., and Jan, M. V. S. (2007). “Strength and failure modes of
rock mass models with non-persistent joints.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min.
Sci., 44(6), 890–902.
Sagong, M., and Bobet, A. (2002). “Coalescence of multiple flaws in a
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Glasgow University Library on 04/26/18. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
rock-model material in uniaxial compression.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min.
Sci., 39(2), 229–241.
Sarfarazi, V., Ghazvinian, A., Schubert, W., Blumel, M., and Nejati, H.
(2014). “Numerical simulation of the process of fracture of echelon rock
joints.” Rock Mech. Rock Eng., 47(4), 1355–1371.
Shen, B., Stephansson, O., Einstein, H. H., and Ghahreman, B. (1995).
“Coalescence of fractures under shear stresses in experiments.” J.
Geophys. Res., 100(B4), 5975–5975.
Su, X., Yang, Z., and Liu, G. (2010). “Finite element modelling of complex
3D static and dynamic crack propagation by embedding cohesive ele-
ments in Abaqus.” Acta Mech. Solida Sin., 23(1), 271–282.
Tang, C. A., Liu, H., Lee, P. K. K., Tsui, Y., and Tham, L. G. (2000).
“Numerical studies of the influence of microstructure on rock failure in
uniaxial compression—Part I: Effect of heterogeneity.” Int. J. Rock
Mech. Min. Sci., 37(4), 555–569.
Turichshev, A., and Hadjigeorgiou, J. (2016). “Triaxial compression experi-
ments on intact veined andesite.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 86(1),
179–193.
Wang, S. Y., Sloan, S. W., Sheng, D. C., and Tang, C. A. (2012a).
“Numerical analysis of the failure process around a circular opening in
rock.” Comput. Geotech., 39, 8–16.
Wang, S. Y., Sloan, S. W., Tang, C. A., and Zhu, W. C. (2012b).
“Numerical simulation of the failure mechanism of circular tunnels in
transversely isotropic rock masses.” Tunnelling Underground Space
Technol., 32, 231–244.
Wong, L. N. Y., and Einstein, H. H. (2009a). “Crack coalescence in molded
gypsum and Carrara marble: Part 1. Macroscopic observations and inter-
pretation.” Rock Mech. Rock Eng., 42(3), 475–511.
Wong, L. N. Y., and Einstein, H. H. (2009b). “Systematic evaluation of
cracking behavior in specimens containing single flaws under uniaxial
compression.” nt. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 46(2), 239–249.
© ASCE 04018070-13
Int. J. Geomech., 2018, 18(7): 04018070
Wong, R. H. C., Chau, K. T., Tang, C. A., and Lin, P. (2001). “Analysis
of crack coalescence in rock-like materials containing three flaws—
Part I: Experimental approach.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 38(7),
909–924.
Wong, R. H. C., Tang, C. A., Chau, K. T., and Lin, P. (2002). “Splitting fail-
ure in brittle rocks containing pre-existing flaws under uniaxial com-
pression.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 69(1), 1853–1871.
Wu, Z., and Wong, L. N. Y. (2013). “Elastic–plastic cracking analysis for
brittle–ductile rocks using manifold method.” Int. J. Fract., 180(1),
71–91.
Yang, S. Q. (2011). “Crack coalescence behavior of brittle sandstone sam-
ples containing two coplanar fissures in the process of deformation fail-
ure.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 78(17), 3059–3081.
Yang, S. Q., Dai, Y. H., Han, L. J., and Jin, Z. Q. (2009). “Experimental
study on mechanical behavior of brittle marble samples containing dif-
ferent flaws under uniaxial compression.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 76(12),
1833–1845.
Yang, S.-Q., and Jing, H.-W. (2011). “Strength failure and crack coales-
cence behavior of brittle sandstone samples containing a single fissure
under uniaxial compression.” Int. J. Fract., 168(2), 227–250.
Yang, S. Q., Jiang, Y. Z., Xu, W. Y., and Chen, X. Q. (2008).
“Experimental investigation on strength and failure behavior of pre-
cracked marble under conventional triaxial compression.” Int. J. Solids
Struct., 45(17), 4796–4819.
Yang, S. Q., Liu, X. R., and Jing, H. W. (2013). “Experimental investigation
on fracture coalescence behavior of red sandstone containing two unpar-
allel fissures under uniaxial compression.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci.,
63, 82–92.
Yang, S. Q.., Xu, T., He, L., Jing, H. W., Wen, S., and Yu, Q. L. (2015).
“Numerical study on failure behavior of brittle rock specimen contain-
ing pre-existing combined flaws under different confining pressure.”
Arch. Civ. Mech. Eng., 15(4), 1085–1097.
Zhang, G. M., Liu, H., Zhang, J., Wu, H. A., and Wang, X. X. (2010).
“Three-dimensional finite element simulation and parametric study for
horizontal well hydraulic fracture.” J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 72(3–4), 310–317.
Zhang, X.-P. and Wong, L. N. Y. (2012). “Cracking processes in rock-like
material containing a single flaw under uniaxial compression: A numeri-
cal study based on parallel bonded-particle model approach.” Rock
Mech. Rock Eng., 45(5), 711–737.
Zhao, Y., Zhang, L., Wang, W., Pu, C., Wan, W., and Tang, J. (2016).
“Cracking and stress–strain behavior of rock-like material containing
two flaws under uniaxial compression.” Rock Mech. Rock Eng., 49(7),
2665–2687.
Zhu, W., and Tang, C. A. (2004). “Micromechanical model for simulating
the fracture process of rock.” Rock Mech. Rock Eng., 37, 25–56.
Int. J. Geomech.