Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-019-02014-0

ORIGINAL PAPER

FDEM Simulation of Rocks with Microstructure Generated by Voronoi

Grain‑Based Model with Particle Growth
Wei Zhou1,2 · Xiang Ji1,2 · Gang Ma1,2   · Yuan Chen1,2

Received: 27 November 2018 / Accepted: 12 November 2019

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
Rock strength variation is closely related to its microstructure. With the development of computer technology, the numerical
model of rocks can be constructed via computer programming, and the numerical simulation avoids a mass of redundant
experimental tests and usually limited by the samples retrieved from the sub-surfaces. In previous studies, the microstruc-
ture in the numerical model is generated randomly. In this paper, a novel methodology for generating the polycrystalline
rock microstructure by a Voronoi grain-based model with particle growth is proposed. The 3D Voronoi tessellations in this
numerical model generation procedure do not consist of random poly-crystals; the distribution of the poly-crystals varies
in shapes and sizes, which represent different mineral grains, and is determined by petrographic data with the 3D particle
growth method. The uniaxial compression tests and tension tests are simulated via a combined FDEM and cohesive crack
propagation model. The results demonstrate that the numerical simulation agrees well with the experimental study. More
importantly, the fracture patterns in the micro-scale are gained, similar to the results obtained from laboratory experiments.
The novel Voronoi grain-based model with the particle growth method can reconstruct the microstructure of polycrystalline
rocks and provide further information in understanding the micro-behaviors of rock materials.

Keywords  Grain-based model · Particle growth · FDEM · Petrographic analysis

1 Introduction
Rocks are widely distributed in the earth’s crust, which con-
sisted of different mineral grains (Cipriani 1996). There are
different characteristics in various rocks such as petrologic
features, chemical composition and crystal structures (Ols-
son 1974; Fredrich et al. 1990; Přikryl 2001). Rocks can
be classified by micro-structure based on these characteris-
tics quantified through petrographic analysis (Yilmaz et al.
2011).
Experimental tests have revealed that rock strength is
closely related to its microstructure, which includes min-
eral composition (Price 2016), grain size (Robertson 1955;
* Gang Ma
magang630@whu.edu.cn
1
State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower
Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072,
China
2
Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics in Hydraulic Structural
Engineering of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University,
Wuhan 430072, China
Paterson 1958), grain shape (Dreyer 1972; Fahy and Guc-
cione 1979), and the fabric of different minerals (Rippa and
Vinale 1983; Irfan 1996). Mounting evidence indicates that
rock strength is generally a function of grain size (Olsson
1974), which has been found to be the main microstructural
factor controlling strength variation (Přikryl 2001). Addi-
tionally, the increase of strength anisotropy relates to the
dominant shape-preferred orientation of rock-forming min-
erals. As a typically heterogeneous material, rock materials
are composed of different mineral grains, the micro-behav-
iors of rock are therefore strongly affected by the petrologic
features at the mineral grains scale.
A wide range of techniques, methods, and procedures
have been developed to document and quantify the miner-
alogical and textural characteristics of rocks (Mendes 1966;
Willard 1969; Irfan and Dearman 1978; Onodera and Asoka
Kumara 1980). For example, many investigators quantify
microstructures in thin sections using petrographic image
analysis, making it possible to determine the size, shape and
the shape-preferred orientation of individual grains, as well
as the grain size distribution and modal composition (Přikryl
2001). In recent years, some innovative techniques have been

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used in laboratory tests to investigate the micro-behaviors of
rock materials, such as acoustic emission (AE) (Zhao et al.
2013), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (Luque et al.
2011), and X-ray computerized tomography (CT) (Peng
et al. 2015). However, the cracking and failure pattern of
rocks at the microscale still cannot be completely understood
through only laboratory experiments due to the complexity
of the rock composition, which is both continuous and dis-
continuous and consists of joints and mineral grains.
To develop a more in-depth understanding of how micro-
structure affects the mechanical behaviors of rock materials,
numerical simulations have consequently been used to study
the mechanical behaviors of rocks at the microscale. Based
on the discrete element method (DEM) or a combined finite
and discrete element method (FDEM), micro-fracturing in
rock-like material can be accomplished by the direct rep-
resentation of cracks in the formulated models (Ma et al.
2011, 2016; Mahabadi et al. 2012; Zhou et al. 2016). A
grain-based model was implemented in the P ­ FC2D to study
the microcracking behavior of Bukit Timah granite (Peng
et al. 2017). The fragments of rocks after fragmentation
are normally irregular polyhedrons with different size and
shape. The propagation of crack and behavior of fracture in
microstructure is very complex to simulate in DEM contact
Model (Peng et al. 2018). To study the geometrical signifi-
cance of the microcracks, the Voronoi tessellation has been
widely used in the representation of numerical rock samples.
A grain-based model (GBM) with the DEM featuring three-
dimensional Voronoi tessellations (random poly-crystals)
was proposed for the simulation of crack damage develop-
ment in brittle rocks (Ghazvinian et al. 2014; Li et al. 2017a,
b). Although numerical methods have been commonly used
for simulating rock materials (Kazerani and Zhao 2010; Lan
et al. 2010), the numerical model of Voronoi tessellations in
this generation procedure consists of random poly-crystals;
so, a more realistic representation of rock microstructure is
required.
To our knowledge, the polycrystalline rock microstruc-
ture is generated using Voronoi tessellation with particle
growth for the first time in this paper. A major difference that
highlights the novelty of the current work is that here a regu-
larization technique with physical meaning is employed to
modify the randomly generated Voronoi grains. This meth-
odology can statistically reconstruct the microstructure of
the polycrystalline rocks, including mineral grain size, grain
boundaries, shapes and spatial arrangement of the minerals.
The quantitative analysis of rock microstructure is first out-
lined, and the generation of the Voronoi grain-based model
using the particle growth method is then introduced. The
uniaxial compression test and tension test on the numerical
rock samples are simulated by the FDEM and cohesive crack
propagation model, and the mechanical behaviors of the rock
materials are discussed.
13
W. Zhou et al.
2 Quantitative Analysis of Rock
Microstructure
The rock microstructure can be quantified through pet-
rographic analysis by means of microscopic examination
of the thin sections, including the determination of min-
eral content and mineral grain size distribution. The paper
chooses Bukit Timah granite as a study object, which has
been extensively studied in the past (Peng et al. 2015,
2017; Wong and Maruvanchery 2016).
Figure 1a shows the thin section of Bukit Timah granite.
The thin section images, then, are processed by a MAT-
LAB source code to find the edge of the mineral grains, as
illustrated in Fig. 1b, c. Based on the selection edges of the
mineral grains, the centroid position and geometric informa-
tion of the mineral grains are obtained. The grain size distri-
bution of the mineral grains is shown in Fig. 1d, where the
grain size is defined as the diameter of a circle with the same
area of the irregularly shaped grain. The mineral species and
contents are quantified through petrographic analysis and
outline extraction in the image recognition.
Significant research has shown that the strength of gran-
ites is generally a function of the wide range of petrographic
parameters, including not only the grain size but also the
microstructural characteristics, mineral composition, grain
boundaries, shape and spatial arrangement of the minerals,
and weathering (Yilmaz et al. 2011). Therefore, it is neces-
sary to consider the geometric characteristics of these min-
eral grains, such as the aspect ratio, roundness, solidity, etc.
A vast number of shape descriptors have been defined to
quantify the shape characteristics. In this study, three simple
yet practical descriptors were employed to keep in line with
some existing studies. The grain solidity is defined as the
ratio of grain surface area Agrain to the area of the convex hull
of selected grain Aconvex . The aspect ratio is defined classi-
cally as L∕ S , where L and S are the major and minor axial
lengths of the best fitting ellipsoid of the grain, respectively.
3 Voronoi Tessellation with Particle Growth
3.1 Particle Growth Method
Rocks are formed in a complicated dynamic evolvement
process, which is related to the accumulation and cementa-
tion of mineral grains. The significant variations in grain
size distributions and grain shapes have been attributed
to different formation conditions and evolutionary history
(Cipriani 1996).
The majority of the existing numerical simulation
methods in consideration of rock microstructures rely on
FDEM Simulation of Rocks with Microstructure Generated by Voronoi Grain-Based Model with…

Fig. 1  The thin section images

and petrographic analysis. In
this picture, different colors
represent different kinds of
minerals. For example, light
gray represents coarse-grained
granodiorite. a A thin sec-
tion of Bukit Timah granite. b
The boundary is marked by an
image processing algorithm.
c The selection edges of some
mineral grains and geometric
characteristics of mineral grains
can be measured based on these
edges. d The mineral grain size
distribution of grain size Bukit
Timah granite

the random Voronoi tessellation algorithms, which fail
to reproduce realistic rock microstructures (Ghazvinian
et al. 2014; Peng et al. 2015; Li et al. 2017a, b). A novel
Voronoi grain-based model with particle growth is, thus,
proposed. In this work, the accumulation and cementation
of mineral grains were modeled as the particle growth of a
sphere packing using the discrete element method (DEM).
The process of particle growth makes the sphere packing
transits form in a disordered to ordered configuration.
In this paper, a novel FDEM method is introduced
which focuses on generating the polycrystalline rock
microstructure. The numerical model generated by the
novel FDEM method is closer to microstructure of rocks
which has not been taken into consideration in the existing
FDEM method. Through verification in fractal theory, the
novel Voronoi grain-based model with the particle growth
method can reconstruct the microstructure of polycrystal-
line rocks accurately.
The particle growth of an initially loose assembly is illus-
trated in Fig. 2. The particle assembly is prepared by initially
generating a cloud of non-contacting spheres with random
locations within the designated region. The parameter of
particles is prescribed by grain size distribution and min-
eral content (Campbell 2006). The radius of the particles
increases and the particles gradually collide with each other.
The Hertz–Mindlin contact model is adopted for elastic col-
lisions (Zhou et al. 2016). Due to the augmentation of par-
ticles, the particle assembly was highly stressed, which is
analogous to the grain growth under the condition of high
temperature and pressure. As the granular packing density
increases, the sphere packing has a transition from a disor-
dered to ordered configuration. The animation of particle
growth is shown in the supplementary materials.

Fig. 2  Snapshots of the particle

assembly during the particle
growth process

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3.2 Voronoi Tessellation
The mineral grains in the rock generally undergo nucleation
at moderate temperatures and pressures, with compaction
and cementation. The nucleation of mineral grains can be
simulated by Voronoi tessellations. A 3D Voronoi tessella-
tion is a partition of a domain of 3D space into a collection
of cells (Ghazvinian et al. 2014). Given a finite number of
points in Euclidean space P = {p1, p2,…,pN} and P∈R3, each
point or seed in this context is assigned to a Voronoi cell,
Vi, as follows:
Vi = {x ∈ ‖ ‖ ‖x − xj ‖ (1)
‖x − xi ‖ ≤ ‖
‖
‖ ∀j ≠ i},
‖
where ‖‖x − xi ‖ is the Euclidean distance. The seeds are ran-
‖
domly located in the domain. A Voronoi cell can be seen as
the region of influence of a seed, namely, the region of space
closer to the seed than to any other seeds. The 3D Voronoi
tessellation generated by P can be written as V = {V(P1),
V(P2), …, V(PN)} (Li et al. 2017a, b).
The algorithm of Voronoi-cell tessellation mentioned
above gives no considerations to the Voroni size distribution.
For a packing consisting of different-sized particles, a gen-
eralization of the concept of a “Voronoi polyhedron” called
the radical plane polyhedron is used (Chang et al. 1989).
The planes forming the radical plane polyhedron are such
that they are perpendicular to the vector joining the centroids
of the particle and its neighbors. Unlike the case of equal-
sized particles, these planes are not the bisector of the vector
joining the centroids. The location of the plane is selected
such that the plane passes through the point from which the
tangent drawn to the particle and its neighbor are equal.
Following the particle growth procedure, the particle
centroid is taken as the seed in Voronoi tessellation, and the
radii of these particles are the relative size of the Voronoi
polyhedron representing the region of influence of a seed.
Figure 3 shows two rock models generated by random Voro-
noi tessellation and the Voronoi tessellation on the basis of
grain growth.
The rock grains are 3D objects in nature. However, to
utilize the 2D shape characterization obtained from thin
sections, the assemblies of Voronoi polyhedrons shown
in Fig.  3 are also sliced into thin slices (as shown in
Fig. 4a, b; Fig. 4a shows the thin sections of the 3D Ran-
dom Voronoi grain-based model, and Fig. 4b shows the
thin sections of a novel Voronoi grain-based model with
particle growth. Without loss of generality, the numerical
models are sliced into ten evenly spaced thin slices). Like
the petrographic analysis described in Sect. 2, the thin
sections are processed digitally for subsequent grain size
and shape analysis. The comparison of grain size distri-
butions (GSDs) is shown in Fig. 4c. The comparison of
grain size distributions (GSDs) is shown in Fig. 4c. The
13
W. Zhou et al.
Fig. 3  a 3D Random Voronoi grain-based model. b A novel Voronoi
grain-based model with particle growth
thin sections of grain size distribution, using red, pink and
blue lines, represent the grain size distribution of Bukit
Timah granite (BTG), 3D Random Voronoi grain-based
model (RGM) and a novel Voronoi grain-based model with
particle growth (GGM), respectively. Each thin section
of the numerical models is analyzed by graphics process-
ing algorithms, and the geometric characteristics of grains
are measured based on these edges. Different thin slices
are shown on the vertical Y-axis against a relative radius
(scale of the transform along the X axes. Value “1” is the
maximum size) on the horizontal x-axis, with the Z-axis
showing their cumulative value. The GSDs of two rock
models are obtained from an ensemble average over all
sections. Figure 4d shows the average grain size distri-
bution of Bukit Timah granite, the 3D Random Voronoi
grain-based model and a novel Voronoi grain-based model
with particle growth. It is clear that the GSD of the rock
model generated by Voronoi tessellation on the basis of
grain growth is closer to real granite than the random
Voronoi tessellation.
The frequency distributions of the grain size are shown
in Fig. 5. The sizes of the random Voronoi polyhedron are
distributed more narrowly, and the distribution is skewed
to the right. By contrast, the size distribution of Voronoi
polyhedrons on the basis of particle growth is closer to
granite rock. The microstructure of real rock material is not
randomly distributed but related to their formation process
(Blatt and Tracy 1996). Those differences are not only in the
grain size distribution but also in the arrangement of these
mineral grains.
The radial distribution function (RDF), g(r), also called
the pair distribution function or pair correlation function,
is an important structural measure. Considering a homo-
geneous distribution of the mineral grains in space, g(r)
FDEM Simulation of Rocks with Microstructure Generated by Voronoi Grain-Based Model with…
Fig. 4  The thin sections of the
numerical models from two dif-
ferent generation methods
Fig. 5  The grain size frequency distribution. a The frequency dis-
tribution of Bukit Timah granite, 3D Random Voronoi grain-based
model and a novel Voronoi grain-based model with particle growth.
b, c, d The frequency distribution of the grain size with a fitted curve
represents the probability of finding a mineral grain in a
shell dr at a distance r of another mineral grain chosen as
a reference point.
Sdn(r)
g(r) = , (2)
N2𝜋rdr
where N represents the total number of mineral grains, and
S is the area of thin sections.
The random Voronoi grain-based model comes closer to
an amorphous solid, which has crystals randomly oriented
Fig. 6  The radial distribution function. The radial distribution func-
tion Bukit Timah granite (BTG), 3D Random Voronoi grain-based
model (RGM) and a novel Voronoi grain-based model (GGM) with
particle growth
with a disordered arrangement (Aurenhammer 1991;
Kovac and Cizelj 2005). However, the novel Voronoi
grain-based model with particle growth is consistent with
Bukit Timah granite, which is similar to a polycrystalline
solid with a more regular structure (as shown in Fig. 6).
The shape of the grains is directly affected on the
arrangement of these mineral grains. In this study, the
shape of the grain is characterized in terms of the circular-
ity, which is defined as the ratio of the perimeter of the
circle of the equivalent area to the perimeter of the poly-
gon, calculated by 4𝜋Sgrain ∕P2grain.
13

The circularity of Bukit Timah granite and the two grain-
based models are compared. The Voronoi polyhedrons gen-
erated on the basis of particle growth are characterized by
higher circularity. The particle growth process makes the
Voronoi tessellation seed distribution more ordered, leading
to an increasing circularity. The circularity distribution of
the novel Voronoi grain-based model with particle growth is
closer to Bukit Timah granite. Therefore, the novel method
in this study can reconstruct the realistic microstructure of
polycrystalline rocks. The relationship between particle
growth and Voronoi tessellation is shown in Fig. 7.
The grain boundaries in rocks form an interface network
which contribute to mechanical properties of mesostructure,
the geometrical characters and fracture energy. The topology
of the grain boundaries network presents a strong fractal
feature (Yao et al. 2016). It has been determined that the
topology of the grain boundaries network also contributes to
the mechanical characteristic. For example, they found that
the fracture energy of rock increases with the fractal dimen-
sion of the grain boundaries network (Yao et al. 2016). The
fractal dimension is a measure of the complexity of the two-
dimensional or three-dimensional graphics, which is referred
to as the box-counting fractal dimension DB.
The fractal geometry theory has been widely used in the
research on engineering surface. There exists a close correla-
tion between macro-fracture energy and the fractal dimen-
sions. However, the grain boundaries in rocks are not con-
sidered in the existing FDEM method. The grain boundaries
are completely random. We hope that numerical model fits
the real rock better. To test this, fractal theory is introduced
to describe the reliability of numerical model, and what is
more, the relationships between microstructure of rocks and
properties of mesostructure can be better understood.
Fig. 7  The circularity distribution of mineral grains. The average
circularity of Bukit Timah granite (BTG) is equal to 0.712. The cir-
cularity of the novel Voronoi grain-based model (GGM) and random
Voronoi grain-based model (RGM) are equal to 0.725 and 0.658,
respectively
13
W. Zhou et al.
The box-counting fractal dimension is measured from the
ratio of increasing detail with increasing scale (Mandelbrot
1982). In essence, several grids of decreasing caliber (δk for
box size, usually δk gives 2­ −k and k = 0, 1, 2…) are placed
over the image of grain boundaries and the number of boxes
(Nk) that contain pixels is counted for each grid (boxes con-
taining pixels correspond to the number of parts or details).
When δk goes to zero, lg Nk ∕ lg(1∕𝛿k ) becomes constant. DB
is the negative limit of the ratio of the log of the number
of boxes at a certain scale over the log of that scale, which
usually gives − lim[lg Nk ∕ lg(𝛿k )] . This demonstrates a frac-
tal behavior if the δk–Nk curve is linear in the logarithmic
relationship (Falconer 2004). In this study, the box-counting
dimension of the novel Voronoi grain-based model is equal
to 1.672, i.e., the slope of the δk–Nk curve in the log–log
scales shown in Fig. 8. This finding is in consistent with Yao
et al. (2016), who reported that the fractal dimension is in
the range of 1.6–1.8.
4 FDEM Modeling of Rock Failure
In simulating rock-like materials, the finite element method
(FEM) has remarkable advantages in dealing with the com-
plex mechanical behaviors before crack initiation, while the
discrete element method (DEM) possesses significant ben-
efits to solve large deformation problems of discrete media
(Chang et al. 2014). The intact rock can be taken as a contin-
uum before crack initiation. Because of the progressive frac-
turing that occurs in materials, rocks are gradually degraded
from the initially continuous state to a highly discrete state.
In this study, the combined finite element method and dis-
crete element method (FDEM) were employed to study the
mechanical behavior of rocks with polycrystalline structure
(Ma et al. 2014).
In the FDEM, the intact rock can be represented as a
notional cemented material (Ma et al. 2015). For exam-
ple, rocks such as sandstone can be regarded as “cemented
granular materials,” where individual sand grains are fused
through interfacial bonds (Ma et al. 2018a, b). Specifically,
the model recreates rock sample whose mineral phases are
represented by bulk elements connected by non-thickness
cohesive interface elements (CIEs). The CIEs are corre-
spond to cementation layers between mineral grains (Ma
et al. 2017) (as shown in Fig. 9).
Abundant experimental observations reveal that rock
failure is mainly caused by inter-crystalline fracture, which
propagates along the grain boundaries. The fracture can also
be initiated inside the minerals associated with intra-granu-
lar micro-cracking (Peng et al. 2017). The intra-crystalline
cracks were often found emanating from the grain bounda-
ries due to the stress concentration (see). To consider both
the intra-crystalline and inter-crystalline cracks, CIEs are
FDEM Simulation of Rocks with Microstructure Generated by Voronoi Grain-Based Model with…

inserted along the mineral boundaries and inside the mineral
grains (see Fig. 10).
In the framework of FDEM modeling, those cohesive
crack elements can deform elastically, damage, and fracture
when the deformation exceeds assigned energy-based thresh-
olds; whereas, bulk elements are assumed to be a linear elas-
tic body without plastic and damage (Chang et al. 2014). The
Mohr–Coulomb criterion with a tensile cut-off is adopted
as the fracture initiation criterion. When the stress state of
a CIE satisfies this criterion, the damage evolution model
based on fracture energy (Ma et al. 2018a, b) is activated
(see Fig. 11). The CIE becomes completely ineffective when
the damage factor reaches one. Then, the fully damaged CIE
is removed from the element mesh configuration. The bulk
elements, previously connected by CIEs, come into contact
and physical crack surfaces emerge in the simulation.

Fig. 8  Calculation of the box-counting fractal dimension. With each side length of a box is 3.5 mm, 2.5 mm, 1.5 mm and 0.5 mm in the
change in the overall box size, the area sampled by any box changes subplots a, b, c and d, respectively. e Correlation between ln(δk) and
and so does the count, as shown in the subplots a, b, c and d. The ln(Nk) of the interface network of rock grains

Fig. 9  a The inter-crystalline

cracks (Fang and Hao 2011),
and b the intra-crystalline
cracks (Erarslan and Williams
2012)

Fig. 10  The finite element

discretization of a rock speci-
men and the insertion of CIEs:
a each grain is discretized
into approximately 100 bulk
finite elements; b the cohesive
crack elements along mineral
boundaries; c the cohesive crack
elements inside the minerals

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 W. Zhou et al.

(Ma et al. 2018a, b). They can be categorized into three

groups: (1) parameters used in the FEM formulation to
characterize the bulk property of the solid element, e.g.,
density, Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio; (2) parameters
used in the cohesive crack model to characterize the frac-
ture properties of the CIE, e.g., the normal and shear stiff-
ness, the CIE strength threshold, and mode I/II fracture
energy; and (3) parameters used in the contact model to
characterize the dissipative behavior of the fracture sur-
face, e.g., the sliding friction coefficient and contact damp-
ing coefficient. The selection of these parameters is very
important to ensure the accuracy of the simulation.
In this mode, the failure of cohesive elements repre-
sents cracks in rock, and I/II fracture energy is introduced
Fig. 11  The damage evolution model based on fracture energy to describe fracture forms. The II fracture energy is shear
fracture energy. Usually, cohesive elements are subjected to
Table 1  The mineralogical properties of the principal grain minerals tensile and shear stresses at the same time. By comparing
of Bukit Timah granite (Peng et al. 2017) the values of I/II fracture energy, the tensile and shear cracks
Parameter K-feldspar Quartz Plagioclase Biotite can be distinguished.
The closure of cracks can be considered in Voronoi Grain-
Density (kg/m3) 2600 2650 2600 2850
Based Model with Particle Growth. When cohesive elements
Elastic (GPa) 20 32 26 12
between the solid elements fail in numerical model, cracks
v 0.23 0.23 0.23 0.23
appear and failure cohesive elements will be deleted (Fig. 12
Content (%) 22.3 30.4 36.6 10.7
b). The solid elements are separated without connection of
cohesive elements. The solid elements can be re-contacted
under stress. The closure of cracks can be simulated by re-
5 Numerical Simulation for FDEM contact of the solid elements. It is worth mentioning that
failure cohesive elements between the solid elements are not
The numerical model of Bukit Timah granite is generated regenerated. However, there is friction between the contact
with the above-stated method, which is shown in Fig. 13. surface of the solid elements, and friction acts on these ele-
The mineral composition of the rock specimen is deter- ments after re-contact which will work against relative slide
mined from the thin section study using the point-counting (Fig. 12c).
technique and is listed in Table 1 (Peng et al. 2017). The density, Young’s modulus, and Poisson’s ratio are
The direct tension test and unconfined compression test measured by the laboratory experiments of Bukit Timah
are performed to obtain the mechanical properties of Bukit granite; while others, especially those for the cohesive crack
Timah granite (Fairhurst and Hudson 1999). model, cannot be directly measured via laboratory tests, and
Similar to other numerical models, the more features it therefore have to be estimated from indirect methods. These
can capture, the more parameters it requires. The param- microparameters are calibrated by comparing the results of
eters of the FDEM are at least straightforward in the sense the model simulation with the corresponding laboratory
that the majority of them have clear physical meanings tests, as listed in Table 1 (Fig. 13). The parameters requir-
ing calibration are as follows:

Fig. 12  The simulation of crack

propagation and closure

13
FDEM Simulation of Rocks with Microstructure Generated by Voronoi Grain-Based Model with…

• Friction angles (φ).

• Fracture energy of type I (GIC).
• Fracture energy of type II (GIIC).

For microscopic numerical model, I/II fracture energy is

the most important parameter in mechanics numerical simu-
lation. Thus, the sensitive analyses of I/II fracture energy
need to be conducted. Figure 14a, b shows the variation
curve between I/II fracture energy and compressive strength,
Fig. 14c, d shows the variation curve between I/II fracture
energy and tensile strength.

5.1 Compression Tests

The macro-properties obtained from the compression

tests are collected and compiled for parameter calibration.
Fig. 13  The numerical model of Bukit Timah granite
The dimensions of the tested specimens were 100 mm in
length and 50 mm in diameter in the laboratory tests. The
• Contact normal stiffness (kn). uniaxial compression tests were conducted at a rate of
• Contact shear stiffness (ks). 0.005 mm/s (Wong and Maruvanchery 2016). The loading
• Tensile strength (tn). platens of the compression testing machine are simulated
• Cohesion (c). by rigid plates on the surface of the numerical model.

Fig. 14  Sensitive analyses of I/II fracture energy

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 W. Zhou et al.

The compression test is simulated by applying a constant 5.2 Tension Tests

velocity to the top and bottom plates (see Fig. 15). The
friction coefficient of the loading platens is 0.1.
Parameter calibration is performed using a trial-and-
error approach. Many iterations are necessary to obtain
a satisfactory calibration of the rock macro-properties.
As shown in Fig. 15b, the stress–strain curve obtained
from the FDEM simulation matches well with the labora-
tory test. The micro-scale parameters of grains and grain
boundaries obtained through this calibration are detailed
in Table 2.
The failure patterns of the rock specimens are shown
in Fig. 16. Comparing the simulated fracture pattern with
the compression tests result, fractures parallel to the load-
ing direction are successfully reproduced by FDEM simu-
lation. The cracks are approximately parallel to the load-
ing direction both in FDEM simulation and laboratory
test. Taking a closer look at the crack planes, it is noticed
that the crack occurs not only along the mineral grain
boundaries, but also it propagates through the mineral
grains (see the column graph of the failure CIEs ratio in
Fig. 16b).
The specimen size is the same as that in the compression
tests, namely, 100 mm in height and 50 mm in diameter. The
direct tension tests by Peng et al. (2017) on two cylindrical
rock specimens are conducted using the MTS 815 system.
The laboratory test results show that failure occurs at the
center of the rock specimens. The failure plane is flat and
generally parallel to the end surfaces of the specimens. The
average direct tensile strength of the Bukit Timah granite is
approximately 10.1 MPa.
Similar to the compression tests models, the loading of
the tension tests models is also performed by applying a
constant velocity to the top and bottom platens (see Fig. 17).
However, the direction of velocity is opposite, and the plat-
ens are tied to the surface of the numerical model. The
simulation results of the rock strengths and the stress–strain
curves are presented in Fig. 17b, which generally captures
the elastic module and tensile strength in the laboratory.
Typical fracture patterns of tension tests in numerical and
laboratory test (Peng et al. 2017) are shown in Fig. 18. They
both display extremely brittle tensile failure along the sam-
ple center without extensional fractures branching from the

Fig. 15  Numerical simulation
of the uniaxial compression
test: a compression test setup.
b comparison of the simulated
stress–strain curve with the
laboratory tested one (Wong
and Maruvanchery 2016), and
the column graph is the percent-
age of the failure cohesive inter-
face elements along the mineral
boundaries (CIEs-A) and the
cohesive crack elements inside
the minerals (CIEs-I) during the
loading process

Table 2  Calibrated microparameters of the cohesive elements for Bukit Timah granite

Element type Parameter Symbol (unit) K-feldspar Quartz Plagioclase Biotite

CIEs inside the rock grains Contact normal stiffness kn (× 1014N/m3) 15 15 15 15

Contact shear stiffness ks (× 1014N/m3) 6.10 6.10 6.10 6.10
Tensile strength tn0 (MPa) 31.5 33 31.5 30
Cohesion c (MPa) 100 100 100 100
Friction angles φ (°) 30 30 30 30
Fracture energy of type I GIC (N/m) 125.3 125.3 125.3 125.3
Fracture energy of type II GIIC (N/m) 626.48 626.48 626.48 626.48
CIEs at the grain boundaries Tensile strength tn0 (MPa) 10.5
Cohesion c (MPa) 36.3

13
FDEM Simulation of Rocks with Microstructure Generated by Voronoi Grain-Based Model with…

Fig. 16  The cracking mode of

the rock specimen in the com-
pression tests. a The simulated
failure mode of the numerical
specimens. b Microcracking
processes of Bukit Timah gran-
ite under compression tests

Fig. 17  Numerical simulation
of uniaxial compression test:
a The tension test setup. b Com-
parison of the simulated stress–
strain curve with the laboratory
tested one (Peng et al. 2017)

failure plane. The simulations in FDEM can satisfactorily

reproduce observed fracture patterns in the laboratory tests.
Compared to the compression test, the formation of ten-
sile fracture is derived from the breakage of the cohesive
element along mineral grain boundaries. And the tensile
strength is greatly affected by the mechanical characteris-
tic of the cohesive elements along mineral boundaries. The
failure ratio of CIEs shown in Fig. 17b indicates that the per-
centage of failure CIEs inside the minerals is less than 0.1%
of the total CIEs, and there is no intra-crystalline cracking
during the loading period.

6 Conclusions

Rock consists of mineral grains at the microscale. These

Fig. 18  The cracking mode of the rock specimen in the direct ten-
sile test. a The simulated failure mode of the numerical specimens. b mineral grains are not random poly-crystals. The petro-
Microcracking processes of Bukit Timah granite under direct tension graphic examination of the thin sections shows that the

13

packing processes and the nucleation of mineral grains
take place simultaneously, with a higher circularity of grain
shape as a result of the crystal growth.
The 3D Voronoi grain-based model with the particle
growth method can simulate the packing processes and the
crystal growth of mineral grains. This methodology can gen-
erate numerical rock samples with a more realistic micro-
structure. The numerical sample is in good agreement with
the statistical characteristics of the microstructure of intact
rocks obtained by the petrographic image analysis, includ-
ing mineral grain size, grain boundaries, shape and spatial
arrangement of minerals.
The FDEM simulations of the numerical rock samples
subjected to uniaxial compression and tension are per-
formed. Both the fracture patterns and stress–strain curves
match well with the experimental results. The novel Voro-
noi grain-based model with the particle growth method can
reconstruct the microstructure of polycrystalline rocks and
provide further information for understanding the micro-
behaviors of rock materials.
Funding  This study was funded by the National Key R&D Program of
China (Grant No. 2017YFC0404801) and the National Science Foun-
dation of China under Grant No. 51779194. The numerical calculations
in this paper were performed on the supercomputing system in the
Supercomputing Center of Wuhan University.
Compliance with Ethical Standards  Kovač M, Cizelj L (2005) Modeling elasto-plastic behavior of poly-
Conflict of interest  No conflict of interest exits in the submission of
this manuscript, and manuscript is approved by all authors for publica-
tion. We would like to declare that the work described was original
research that has not been published previously, and not under consid-
eration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. All the authors
listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed.
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