Peridynamic simulation of crack propagation of non-homogeneous brittle rock-like materials

Abstract The peridynamic (PD) theory has achieved good and wide application in analysing the fracture and crack propagation of rock-like materials. However, the results of the calculation may not be reliable due to rock heterogeneity. In this paper, the critical stretch that obeys a distribution function is proposed to describe the heterogeneity of the non-homogeneous materials. In addition, the relationship between the eigenvalue of the distribution function of the critical stretch and the macroscopic mechanical parameters of the non-homogeneous material is established. Based on the Weibull distribution function, the peridynamic model reflecting the heterogeneity of rock-like materials is established, and the relationship between the average critical stretch of rock-like materials bond and the shape parameter of Weibull distribution function is analysed. On this basis, We compared and analysed the simulation results obtained by the homogeneous analysis method (HAM) and the non-homogeneous analysis method (NHAM) by analysing three typical numerical calculation cases. Results show that NHAM not only reflects the inhomogeneity of rock-like materials, but numerical results of the crack propagation path and speed are more accurate than the traditional HAM numerical results.