Modelling rockfall by a novel FEM-DEM coupling approach with explicitly considering geomaterial heterogeneity

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4. Modelling rockfall by a novel FEM-DEM coupling approach with explicitly considering geomaterial heterogeneity

The finite element method (FEM), the implicit discrete element method (DEM) and the statistical strength theory were coupled to model the meso-macro cross-scale failure mechanism of rock masses and reveal the impact characteristics of rockfalls influ-enced by rock heterogeneity. In the proposed method, the automatic transformation of rock materials from continuous medium to discontinuous medium can be realized. Meanwhile, the spatial inhomogeneity of rock properties can be considered by the specific distribution function. After verifying the effectiveness, the coupled method was applied to investigate rock failure and rockfall. The results show that it is the continuous process of stress build-up, stress shadow and stress transfer that leads to the gradual development of cracks and the macro failure of the rocks containing fissures and holes; the horizontal movement dis-tance of the largest falling rock fluctuates when the nonuniform coefficient increases from 1.01 to 4, indicating that the strong material heterogeneity will lead to the high uncertainty of fragment distribution; this distance decreases greatly when the non-uniform coefficient researched 5 and 6 because one obvious major falling block can form, and the trajectory of the large block is relatively regular.

10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering (NUMGE2023)

3. Coupled analysis