Thermo-mechanical coupled particle model for rock

A thermo-mechanical coupled particle model for simulation of thermally-induced rock damage based on the particle simulation method was proposed. The simulation results of three verification examples, for which the analytical solutions are available, demonstrate the correctness and usefulness of the thermo-mechanical coupled particle model. This model is applied to simulating an application example with two cases: one is temperature-independent elastic modulus and strength, while the other is temperature-dependent elastic modulus and strength. The related simulation results demonstrate that microscopic crack initiation and propagation process with consideration of temperature-independent and temperature-dependent elastic modulus and strength are different and therefore, the corresponding macroscopic failure patterns of rock are also different. On the contrary, considering the temperature-dependent elastic modulus and strength has no or little effect on the heating conduction behavior. Numerical results, which are obtained by using the proposed model with temperature-dependent elastic modulus and strength, agree well with the experimental results. This also reveals that the rock subjected to heating experiences much more cracking than the rock subjected to cooling.