An extended displacement discontinuity method for analysis of stress wave propagation in viscoelastic rock mass

An extended displacement discontinuity method (EDDM) is proposed to analyze the stress wave propagation in jointed viscoelastic rock mass (VRM).The discontinuities in a rock mass are divided into two groups.The primary group with an average geometrical size larger than or in the same order of magnitude of wavelength of a concerned stress wave is defined as 'macro-joints',while the secondary group with a high density and relatively small geometrical size compared to the wavelength is known as 'micro-defects'.The rock mass with micro-defects is modeled as an equivalent viscoelastic medium while the macro-joints in the rock mass are modeled explicitly as physical discontinuities.Viscoelastic properties of a micro-defected sedimentary rock are obtained by longitudinally impacting a cored long sedimentary rod with a pendulum.Wave propagation coefficient and dynamic viscoelastic modulus are measured.The EDDM is then successfully employed to analyze the wave propagation across macro-joint in VRM.The effect of the rock viscosity on the stress wave propagation is evaluated by comparing the results of VRM from the presented EDDM with those of an elastic rock mass (ERM) from the conventional displacement discontinuity method (CDDM).The CDDM is a special case of the EDDM under the condition that the rock viscosity is ignored.Comparison of the reflected and transmitted waves shows that the essential rock viscosity has a significant effect on stress wave attenuation.When a short propagation distance of a stress wave is considered,the results obtained from the CDDM approximate to the EDDM solutions,however,when the propagation distance is sufficiently long relative to the wavelength,the effect of rock viscosity on the stress wave propagation cannot be ignored.

On the accuracy of higher order displacement discontinuity method(HODDM) in the solution of linear elastic fracture mechanics problems

The higher order displacement discontinuity method(HODDM) utilizing special crack tip elements has been used in the solution of linear elastic fracture mechanics(LEFM) problems. The paper has selected several example problems from the fracture mechanics literature(with available analytical solutions) including center slant crack in an infinite and finite body, single and double edge cracks, cracks emanating from a circular hole. The numerical values of Mode Ⅰ and Mode Ⅱ SIFs for these problems using HODDM are in excellent agreement with analytical results(reaching up to 0.001% deviation from their analytical results). The HODDM is also compared with the XFEM and a modified XFEM results. The results show that the HODDM needs a considerably lower computational effort(with less than 400 nodes) than the XFEM and the modified XFEM(which needs more than 10000 nodes) to reach a much higher accuracy. The proposed HODDM offers higher accuracy and lower computation effort for a wide range of problems in LEFM.

Numerical Simulation of Non-linear Joint Using Displacement Discontinuity Method

An iterative algorithm for modeling of non-linear joint by the displacement discontinuity method (DDM) was described, and the effect of the non-linear joint on the in-situ stress field was investigated in this paper. The Barton-Bandis (BB) non-linear joint model and failure criterion were adopted in the new DDM program. Using this program, the stress field around the non-linear joint was obtained, the parameters analysis of the joint was carried out, and the deformation and stress distribution of the joint were studied. The simulation results show that: (1)the in-situ stress is significantly affected by the joint; (2)the increase of stiffness, friction angle, and thickness of the joint affect the stress concentration in different ways; (3)the influence distance of the joint changes with the angle of the joint; (4)the deformation and stress of the joint change with the point position.

Mapped Displacement Discontinuity Method:Numerical Implementation and Analysis for Crack Problems

The displacement discontinuity method(DDM) is a kind of boundary element method aiming at modeling two-dimensional linear elastic crack problems. The singularity around the crack tip prevents the DDM from optimally converging when the basis functions are polynomials of first order or higher. To overcome this issue,enlightened by the mapped finite element method(FEM) proposed in Ref. [13], we present an optimally convergent mapped DDM in this work, called the mapped DDM(MDDM). It is essentially based on approximating a much smoother function obtained by reformulating the problem with an appropriate auxiliary map. Two numerical examples of crack problems are presented in comparison with the conventional DDM. The results show that the proposed method improves the accuracy of the DDM; moreover, it yields an optimal convergence rate for quadratic interpolating polynomials.

Numerical Analysis of Crack Under Compression by 3D Displacement Discontinuity Method

A 3D displacement discontinuity method is applied to solve the fracture mechanics problems of the mixed mode crack under compression.Friction between the surface of the closed crack is considered by establishing a simple and efficient iterative algorithm based on method of contact resistance mitigation.On the surfaces of the closed crack,the Mohr-coulomb rule is satisfied by iteration when the crack is in condition of sliding.The stress intensity factors are obtained using displacement fitting method.It is shown that the numerical results agree with the experimental results well and that friction plays an important role in resisting crack propagation.

A Study on Propagation Mechanism of Fracture Systems in Rock Masses by Discontinuity Displacement Method

The main task of fracture mechanics of rock masses is the study on the propagating mechanism of fractures in rock masses , which can be efficiently conducted by discontinuty displacement (DD) numerical evaluation . Firstly ,the element stress and displacement are analysed and the principle and steps of the numerical calculation of stress intensity factor and fracture extension force are introduced .The numerical results of parallel and echelon fracture systems ,which are compared with real field fractures .are presented. Finally . a simple engineering application example is presented .

Numerical stress analysis for the multi-casing structure inside a wellbore in the formation using the boundary element method

A multi-casing structure in drilling engineering can be considered as an inhomogeneous body consisting of many different materials. The mechanical behavior of the inhomogeneous body in an infinite domain is very com- plicated. In this paper, a detailed expression about the fictitious stress method of the boundary element method （BEM） is demonstrated for the inhomogeneous body. Then the fictitious stress method is deployed to investigate the stresses for the multi-casing structure under non-uniform loading conditions and an irregular wellbore. Three examples of the multi-casing structure in the borehole imply the high effectiveness of BEM for complex geometries related to the borehole in an infinite formation. The effects of casing eccentricity and the interfacial gap on the stress field are discussed. The eccentric casing takes the potential yield when the eccentric orientation is along the direction of Sh. Under different eccentric orientations, the yon Mises stress in the casing increases with increasing degree of eccentricity. The radial stress in the multi-casing structure is always continuous along the radius, but the circumferential stress is discontinuous at the interface. The radial stress decreases and the circumferential stress increases with the increasing of the interfacial gap between the adjacent materials.

Analysis of fracture propagation and shale gas production by intensive volume fracturing

This paper presents an integrated study from fracture propagation modeling to gas flow modeling and a correlation analysis to explore the key controlling factors of intensive volume fracturing.The fracture propagation model takes into account the interaction between hydraulic fracture and natural fracture by means of the displacement discontinuity method(DDM)and the Picard iterative method.The shale gas flow considers multiple transport mechanisms,and the flow in the fracture network is handled by the embedded discrete fracture model(EDFM).A series of numerical simulations are conducted to analyze the effects of the cluster number,stage spacing,stress difference coefficient,and natural fracture distribution on the stimulated fracture area,fractal dimension,and cumulative gas production,and their correlation coefficients are obtained.The results show that the most influential factors to the stimulated fracture area are the stress difference ratio,stage spacing,and natural fracture density,while those to the cumulative gas production are the stress difference ratio,natural fracture density,and cluster number.This indicates that the stress condition dominates the gas production,and employing intensive volume fracturing(by properly increasing the cluster number)is beneficial for improving the final cumulative gas production.

DDM regression analysis of the in-situ stress field in a non-linear fault zone

A multivariable regression analysis of the in-situ stress field, which considers the non-linear deformation behavior of faults in practical projects, is presented based on a newly developed three-dimensional displacement discontinuity method （DDM） program. The Bar- ton-Bandis model and the Kulhaway model are adopted as the normal and the tangential deformation model of faults, respectively, where the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion is satisfied. In practical projects, the values of the mechanical parameters of rock and faults are restricted in a bounded range for in-situ test, and the optimal mechanical parameters are obtained from this range by a loop. Comparing with the traditional finite element method （FEM）, the DDM regression results are more accurate.

Three-dimensional interfacial fracture analysis of a one-dimensional hexagonal quasicrystal coating

In this paper, the three-dimensional(3D) interfacial fracture is analyzed in a one-dimensional(1D) hexagonal quasicrystal(QC) coating structure under mechanical loading. A planar interface crack with arbitrary shape is studied by a displacement discontinuity method. Fundamental solutions of interfacial concentrated displacement discontinuities are obtained by the Hankel transform technique, and the corresponding boundary integral-differential equations are constructed with the superposition principle.Green’s functions of constant interfacial displacement discontinuities within a rectangular element are derived, and a boundary element method is proposed for numerical simulation.The singularity of stresses near the crack front is investigated, and the stress intensity factors(SIFs) as well as energy release rates(ERRs) are determined. Finally, relevant influencing factors on the fracture behavior are discussed.