Fractal Characteristics of Joint Development in Stochastic Rocks

Generation and propagation of macroscopic joints in brittle rocks depend on the evolution of defects and their interaction with cracks. The proposed approach accounts for damage accumulation and joint—damage interaction in terms of local stress intensity factors (SIF). The numerical simulation of the joint’s development in the 2D region is carried out for the various kinds of the rock stochasticity. It is shown that the fractal dimension of the crack front is the invariant of the joints’ propagation process: the fractal dimension increases with the uniformity of the material properties distribution.