Learning

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Software Tutorials

PFC 7 Generating A Bonded Assembly

This tutorial will guide you through how to create a simple material using the linear parallel bond-model.

Loops, Splitting, and Operators

When constructing or running simulations, you may want to query or modify values associated with all, or some of, the objects in your model (such as zones, nodes, blocks, balls, contacts, rockbolts, etc.). This may be to measure results like stress or displacement, to assign a calculated extra variable for plotting, or to adjust a property value. There are several ways to identify and navigate across all these objects using loops, splitting, and operators — with each one becoming easier and faster to execute. See how you can apply all of these approaches in a tutorial where a zone property is randomly assigned for strength variability throughout the model. You will also see how much easier and faster these approaches have become. Applying model property distributions via the PROPERTY command is also reviewed.

Bonded Block Model undergoing Damage and Bulking during Simulated Relaxation

Continuum numerical modeling is inherently limited when the rock behavior involves mechanisms such as spalling and bulking. The Bonded Block Model (BBM) approach simulates the initiation of cracks that can coalesce and/or propagate leading to extension and shear fracturing, as well as the rock (e.g., intact, jointed, or veined) strength dependency on confinement.

Technical Papers

Mine Dewatering in a Compartmentalized Hydrogeologic Setting at Sishen Mine in South Africa

Sishen mine in South Africa is one of the largest open-pit iron mines in the world.

Time-Dependent Behavior of Saint-Martin-La-Porte Exploratory Galleries: Field Data Processing and Numerical Modeling of Excavation in Squeezing Rock Conditions

Field monitoring programs (e.g., convergence measurements and stress measurements in the support system) play an important role in following the response of the ground and of the support system during and after excavation. They contribute to the adaptation of the excavation and support installation method and the prediction of the long-term behavior. In the context of the Lyon–Turin link project, an access gallery (SMP2) was excavated between 2003 and 2010, and a survey gallery (SMP4) has been excavated since 2017.

Advanced three-dimensional geomechanical and hydrogeological modelling for a deep open pit
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