A Coupled Damage-Permeability Constitutive Model for Brittle Rocks Subjected to Explosive Loading

Abstract

A dynamic constitutive model considering coupled damage-permeability effect is developed for rocks under explosion. The main purpose of this model is to provide reference to in situ leaching mining (include uranium ore, gold ore, etc.) to improve the permeability of rocks using blasting. The damage is induced and described by the summation of all principal tensile strains. This method does not need to determine (distinguish) the stress state of the material and thus does not need to consider the damage induced by differential stresses. A corresponding relation between the damage status and rock permeability is established through a logarithm function. Based on the theoretical foundation, this model is embedded in a three-dimensional code of ABAQUS, and its applicability is verified through simulating the experiments under the condition of explosive load, the results from numerical simulation are consistent with the experimental results. Moreover, the obvious advantage of the numerical constitutive model is that it can clearly distinguish permeability variation that cannot be done in laboratory test.