A Novel Bilinear Constitutive Law for Cohesive Elements to Model the Fracture of Pressure-Dependent Rocks

The rock fracture behavior has an important impact on the breakage performance of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs). To model the rock fracture process, a novel constitutive law is proposed for the cohesive zone model. In this constitutive law, the Mohr–Coulomb criterion is adopted as the crack initiation criterion, and followed by the development of a traction–separation model under both the compression and tension states to describe the strongly...