Based on the heterogeneous characteristics of rock at mesoscopic level, the thermo-mechanical (TM) coupled behavior during the failure process of rock subjected to thermal stress is analyzed with elastic damage mechanics and thermo-elastic theory. A mesoscopic TM coupling model, implemented in rock fracture process analysis (RFPA), is proposed, which can be used to study the damage and failure process, as well as elastic stress for the coupled TM rock problem. With the numerical model, the damage and associated mechanical properties evolution of mesoscopic structure in rocks subjected to TM loading can be analyzed. Numerical simulation is carried out to investigate the stability of the rock pillar in a hard rock laboratory. The numerically obtained stress field, failure pattern of pillar rock and associated acoustic emission (AE) events all agree well with the in-situ data, which shows that the proposed model is reasonable and effective, and may provide guides for the experiment design and associated applications
Godkänd; 2006; 20100805 (andbra)