An Extended Grain‐Based Model for Characterizing Crystalline Materials: An Example of Marble

Abstract

An extended grain-based model (EGBM) is proposed with the purpose of explicitly incorporating morphological and metric characteristics of the crystalline structure for realistic simulation of crystalline materials. The objectives of this paper are twofold: (a) to improve the Voronoi grain-based model (VGBM), and (b) to discuss several key challenges associated with model calibration. The EGBM is realized using the software Particle Flow Code (PFC) based on the principle of VGBM. To determine a representative EGBM, a simple calibration procedure taking the microcracking process into account is suggested. Using a crystalline rock as an example, three EGBMs with different rock structures as well as a conventional bonded-particle model (BPM) have been examined to study the effect of geometric heterogeneity on physico-mechanical behavior. The geometric heterogeneity of the three EGBMs is quantified by the geometric deviation index, which measures the standard deviation of fractal dimensions of the constitutive mineral grains.

Investigation of suitability of marbles to standards with inequality expressions and statistical approach using some physical and mechanical properties

“…The effects of a number of physical and mechanical properties of marble samples on surface roughness value have been discussed using multivariate statistical methods [14]. The mechanical properties of marble samples affecting fracture and crack systems have been examined and evaluated using several statistical methods [32]. Moreover, inequality studies on marbles have gained prominence in recent years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Recognition of Mesoscale Strike‐Slip En Echelon Faults From 2‐D Nonporous Models

“…The laboratory data can be obtained from Cheng et al (2015). The model calibration procedures can be found in Wong and Zhang (2018).…”

“…Because no direct mapping relations exist between most of these microparameters and macroparameters, the material has to be reproduced by matching the emergent responses of the numerical model with those observed in laboratory experiments (Potyondy & Cundall, ). The calibration principles, assumptions, and procedures to capture the phenomenal behavior of such a grain‐based material by simulating the standard uniaxial compressive test have recently been systematically illustrated by the authors (Wong & Zhang, ) and therefore not reiterated herein. All the calibrated microparameters in the present study are listed in Table .…”

Impact of soft minerals on crack propagation in crystalline rocks under uniaxial compression: A grain‐based numerical investigation

“…However, the underlying mechanism for the impact of soft minerals on the brittle failure and cracking behavior of crystalline rocks is still unclear. 48 In view of this, particle-based numerical simulation was employed to construct GBM of crystalline rock samples containing soft minerals with different contents, strengths, and stiffnesses. Influences of the above parameters on the mechanical properties and crack propagation trends of crystalline rocks were estimated.…”