Abstract
The mining industry is striving for innovative and novel technologies to improve productivity and profitability. One of the main challenges with current hard rock research is its laborious and costly experimental procedures used in describing the rock behaviour. The techniques required for rock characterization can be greatly facilitated by employing the state-of-the-art numerical methods. In this research, discrete element method (DEM) is used to reliably characterize the general failure of rocks. This model constitutes of cluster of particles joined by breakable cementitious bonds for replicating the macro-properties of rocks. Capturing an acceptable ratio for the uniaxial compressive strength to direct tensile strength and obtaining the inherent nonlinearities in the stress-strain curves has made this model a strong rock tool simulator. In this study, a series of rock strength assessment tests are used to calibrate the model both in tension and compression for Basalt. The accuracy of computational results is within 10% error bound compared to the laboratory measurements. The developed model can be used to reproduce the rock behavior under various loading conditions without having to perform extensive laboratory tests.