... results in wide scatter in their ultimate strength and the so-called size effect. This paper proposes an approach based on s (SVEs) to characterize rock fracture strength at the mesoscale. The use of SVEs ensures that the material randomness is maintained upon averaging of microscale features. Because...

... randomness in rocks is based on the modeling of stochastic volume elements (SVEs). Although representative volume elements (RVEs) are more commonly used in solid mechanics, SVEs are more appropriate for fracture analysis since they ensure that the material randomness is maintained. They still average...