Learning

Customized Training

Customized Engineering Training Courses

Itasca Educational Partnership

ITASCA Academics

Software Tutorials

An Introduction to Python Scripting: Part 1

Introduction to Python scripting by reviewing key concepts and through demonstrations. Part 1 focuses on installing Python, variables and types, conditions and loops, and functions.

FLAC3D 6.0 PFC Plugin Punch

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.

Technical Papers

Elastic Properties of Fractured Rock Masses With Frictional Properties and Power Law Fracture Size Distributions

We derive the relationships that link the general elastic properties of rock masses to the geometrical properties of fracture networks, with a special emphasis to the case of frictional crack surfaces.

We extend the well-known elastic solutions for free-slipping cracks to fractures whose plane resistance is defined by an elastic fracture (shear) stiffness ks and a stick-slip Coulomb threshold.

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

GPR-inferred fracture aperture widening in response to a high-pressure tracer injection test at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory, Sweden

We assess the performance of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method in fractured rock formations of very low transmissivity (e.g. T ≈ 10−9–10−10 m2/s for sub-mm apertures) and, more specifically, to image fracture widening induced by high-pressure injections. A field-scale experiment was conducted at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory (Sweden) in a tunnel situated at 410 m depth. The tracer test was performed within the most transmissive sections of two boreholes separated by 4.2 m. The electrically resistive tracer solution composed of deionized water and Uranine was expected to lead to decreasing GPR reflections with respect to the saline in situ formation water.