Fracture of Brittle Rock under Dynamic Loading Conditions

A continuum damage model is used to study the dynamic fracture of rock in this investigation. In this model, damage in rock is considered to be the fraction of rock volume that has been tension relieved; and, tensile microcracking has been taken as the damage mechanism. In compression, the rock responds in an elastic/perfectly plastic manner. The model includes the strain-rate effect explicitly. Two example applications involving concrete cracking and oil shale blasting are presented to demonstrate the utility of the damage model.