The 3D Numerical Simulation for the Propagation Process of Multiple Pre-existing Flaws in Rock-Like Materials Subjected to Biaxial Compressive Loads

General particle dynamics (GPD), which is a novel meshless numerical method, is proposed to simulate the initiation, propagation and coalescence of 3D pre-existing penetrating and embedded flaws under biaxial compression. The failure process for rock-like materials subjected to biaxial compressive loads is investigated using the numerical code GPD3D. Moreover, internal crack evolution processes are successfully simulated using GPD3D. With increasing lateral stress, the secondary cracks keep growing in the samples, while the growth of the wing cracks is restrained. The samples are mainly split into fragments in a shear failure mode under biaxial compression, which is different from the splitting failure of the samples subjected to uniaxial compression. For specimens with macroscopic pre-existing flaws, the simulated types of cracks, the simulated coalescence types and the simulated failure modes are in good agreement with the experimental results.