Numerical simulation of spatial distributions of mining-induced stress and fracture fields for three coal mining layouts

In this study, the spatial distributions of stress and fracture fields for three typical underground coal mining layouts, Le, non-pillar mining （NM）, top-coal caving mining （TCM） and protective coal-seam mining （PCM）, are modeled using discrete element software UDEC, The numerical results show that different mining layouts can lead to different mining-induced stress fields, resulting in diverse fracture fields, For the PCM, the mining influenced area in front of the mining faces is the largest, and the stress concentration factor in front of the mining faces is the lowest, The spatial shapes of the mining-induced fracture fields under NM, TCM and PCM differ, and they are characterized by trapezoidal, triangular and tower shapes, respectively, The fractal dimensions of mining-induced fractures of the three mining layouts decrease in the order of PCM, TCM and NM, It is also shown that the PCM can result in a better gas control effect in coal mines with high outburst potential, The numerical results are expected to provide a basis for understanding of mining-induced gas seepage fields and provide a reference for high- efficiency coal mining,

Research on evolution of mining pressure field and fracture field and gas emission features

The relation between mining pressure field-fracture field and gas emission of working face is analyzed, and the concept that there is a stress point （or strain point） among permeability of coal is presented. It is believed that the mutation of coal permeability caused by the sudden loading or unloading of working face roof as periodic weighting occurs is the main reason that a lot of gas pour into the working face. Based on the above concept, the relation is established among abutment pressure during periodie weighting, permeability of coal seam and gas emission, and relation graph is drawn. Then the loading and unloading features of coal at the moment of fracture and non-fracture of main roof are revealed. And finally it is presented that the process of sudden loading or unloading as periodic weighting occurs plays an important role in rupture propagation of coal, analytical movement of gas and gas emission.

Simulation of Corrosion-Induced Cracking of Reinforced Concrete Based on Fracture Phase Field Method

Accurate simulation of the cracking process caused by rust expansion of reinforced concrete(RC)structures plays an intuitive role in revealing the corrosion-induced failure mechanism.Considering the quasi-brittle fracture of concrete,the fracture phase field driven by the compressive-shear term is constructed and added to the traditional brittle fracture phase field model.The rationality of the proposed model is verified by a mixed fracture example under a shear displacement load.Then,the extended fracture phase model is applied to simulate the corrosion-induced cracking process of RC.The cracking patterns caused by non-uniform corrosion expansion are discussed for RC specimens with homogeneous macroscopically or heterogeneous with different polygonal aggregate distributions at the mesoscopic scale.Then,the effects of the protective layer on the crack propagation trajectory and cracking resistance are investigated,illustrating that the cracking angle and cracking resistance increase with the increase of the protective layer thickness,consistent with the experimental observation.Finally,the corrosion-induced cracking process of concrete specimens with large and small spacing rebars is simulated,and the interaction of multiple corrosion cracking is easily influenced by the reinforcement spacing,which increases with the decrease of the steel bar interval.These conclusions play an important role in the design of engineering anti-corrosion measures.The fracture phase field model can provide strong support for the life assessment of RC structures.

Adaptive phase field modelling of crack propagation in orthotropic functionally graded materials

In this work,we extend the recently proposed adaptive phase field method to model fracture in orthotropic functionally graded materials(FGMs).A recovery type error indicator combined with quadtree decomposition is employed for adaptive mesh refinement.The proposed approach is capable of capturing the fracture process with a localized mesh refinement that provides notable gains in computational efficiency.The implementation is validated against experimental data and other numerical experiments on orthotropic materials with different material orientations.The results reveal an increase in the stiffness and the maximum force with increasing material orientation angle.The study is then extended to the analysis of orthotropic FGMs.It is observed that,if the gradation in fracture properties is neglected,the material gradient plays a secondary role,with the fracture behaviour being dominated by the orthotropy of the material.However,when the toughness increases along the crack propagation path,a substantial gain in fracture resistance is observed.

Implementation Details for the Phase Field Approaches to Fracture

Phase field description of fracture is a very promising approach for simulating crack initiation, propagation, merging and branching. This method greatly reduces the implementation complexity, compared with discrete descriptions of cracks. In this work, we provide an overview of phase field models for quasistatic and dynamic cases. Afterward, we present useful vectors and matrices for the implementation of this method in two and three dimensions.