Simulating the response of brittle elastic solids using a fracture mechanics-based elastic modelling tool

A numerical model of infinite crack arrays is used to simulate the behaviour of brittle elastic solids. Modelling results for different periodic flat cracks demonstrate stress intensity factors that are very close to analytical results. The effect of crack growth and interaction on brittle solid behaviour is studied in terms of stress-strain curves. Numerical stress-strain results generally agree with published analytic solutions. However, additional modelling revealed the following: (1) Nonlinearity in crack-induced stress-strain response is strongly affected by the crack spacing parallel to the direction of crack propagation. (2) Analytic studies have been used to show that hardening as well as softening responses are possible, however, only strain softening response is possible for realistic crack densities. (3) The crack densities typically assumed in analytic solutions are not sufficient to generate nonlinearity in the total stress-strain response as large as that observed in real rocks.