An Investigation on Stress Wave Propagation in Micromechanical Models of Rock

Micromechanical modelling is a simulation technique based on the particle discrete element method which reproduces rock through a densely packed, non-structured, assembly of circular or spherical particles. The goal of this paper is to study the dynamic elastic behaviour of two dimensional particle models of hard rock. This is a first step in the definition of a modelling environment that emulates the core mechanisms of the wave propagation in rock masses. Such an environment is necessary to study aspects of stress wave interaction with rock masses that are difficult and expensive to investigate in real condition. In the future, such models will be able to simulate full scale problems. Hybrid static-dynamic boundary conditions are established, methods for static and dynamic loading of models are defined and the conditions for good quality wave transmission through unjointed unorganized particulate media are determined.