Shear behavior of polycrystalline rock joints under constant normal stiffness (CNS) conditions: A peridynamic investigation

Abstract

The shear behavior of rock joints with asperity damage in polycrystalline rock is significantly influenced by grain-scale heterogeneity, a critical factor affecting the stability of underground engineering projects. While Peri-dynamics (PD) has been increasingly applied to analyze shear behavior of rock joints, existing models often idealize the rock as an isotropic continuum, neglecting its intrinsic microstructural heterogeneity, elastoplastic response, and detailed joint surface morphology. To address these limitations, this study proposes an elastoplastic fracture model within the PD framework to simulate the shear behavior of polycrystalline rocks. The proposed model features: (1) an explicit representation of polycrystalline structures with diverse mineral compositions, and (2) an accurate characterization of joint surface morphology using joint roughness coefficients (JRC). The model is validated through three-point bending test simulations, which show good agreement with experimental results. Direct shear tests are then simulated to systematically investigate the influences of three key factors: JRC (10.2-17.5), constant normal stiffness (0-0.01 mm), and mineral composition (plagioclase 40-60%, pyroxene 16-24%, biotite 8-12%). The results indicate that while stochastic mineral distribution has a negligible impact on shear strength of rock joints with identical compositions, an increase in plagioclase content enhances strength, and a higher JRC prompts a transition from localized to diffuse damage patterns. These findings provide valuable insights for the design and stability assessment of deep underground engineering where rock joints behavior is a governing factor for overall system performance.

Keywords

Polycrystalline rock / Shear behavior / Joint roughness coefficient (JRC) / Peridynamics (PD) / Constant normal stiffness (CNS) / Underground engineering

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and De-velopment Program Young Scientist Project (2024YFC2911000), and the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (Grant No. 2025J01528).

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare the following personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Liang Fu is currently employed by Sichuan Shudao Railway Investment Group Co., Ltd. Other authors declare that there are no competing interests.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Jianzhi Zhang: Writing -original draft, Software, Methodology, In-vestigation, Funding acquisition, Data curation. Wenhao Wei: Writing -original draft, Formal analysis. Changhe Shangguan: Formal analy-sis. Ting Zhang: Writing -review & editing, Supervision, Methodology, Conceptualization. Liang Fu: Writing -review & editing, Supervision.

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