Modeling of an excavation-induced rock fracturing process from continuity to discontinuity

A convenient and efficient approach to simulate the excavation-induced rock fracturing process from continuity to discontinuity is proposed. The excavation boundary is considered to be an internal discontinuity, which is enriched by a Heaviside function. By using partition of unity concept and level set method, the cellular automaton updating rule for elasto-plastic fracturing induced by excavation is developed. The excavation induced rock mass...