Thermo-mechanical FDEM model for thermal cracking of rock and granular materials

A coupled thermo-mechanical (TM) model based on the combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM) was proposed to simulate the thermal cracking of rock and granular materials. For heat conduction, it links continuous and contact heat transfer simultaneously through the continuum and discrete thermal elements, and can handle thermal contacts explicitly. For thermally induced stresses, the new TM model uses the concept of multiplicative...