Rupture Propagation Analyses by the Three Dimensional Finite Element Method with Joint Element

This study aims to simulate spontaneous rupture propagation of the discontinuous plane which is modeled by the arrangement of three dimensional joint elements. To achieve this purpose, we first modified the joint element proposed by Toki et al. as follows. First, we removed the assumption that four nodal points forming a joint plane were still on one plane even after its deformation. Second, the stress drop was introduced in the shear component of the constitutive relationships of the element. Third, we made it possible to model the discontinuous plane which had arbitrary normal direction by introducing a general three dimensional coordinate transform matrix. Two models were used in this study to verify the applicability of the modified element to express spontaneous rupture propagation. One was used to examine the rupture propagation which propagated one-dimensionally, the other two-dimensionally. It was found that the modified joint element was able to express the rupture propagation phenomenon just same as the two dimensional joint element.