Dynamic Fracturing and Fragmentation of Rock Materials: Effect of Strain Rate and Confinement

Rock fracture and fragmentation under dynamic loads play an important role in determining the dynamic mechanical properties of rock materials and have been a significant research topic in the rock dynamics and engineering. With rapidly growing demand for exploiting resources and space towards underground at greater depth in civil, mining, petroleum and geothermal engineering, rock materials are frequently exposed to extreme environments with high strain dynamic loads and high in-situ stress. A combined experimental and numerical study is conducted in this thesis to elaborate on dynamic fracturing and fragmentation of rock materials under various strain rates and confinements conditions.The research findings will facilitate verification of the current dynamic experimental techniques, development of more efficient and rigorous numerical methods, and applications involved in large-scale rock dynamic problems.