Use of stochastic XFEM in the investigation of heterogeneity effects on the tensile strength of intermediate geotechnical materials

The numerical simulation of an Unconfined Expansion Test (UET) is presented with tensile strength fracture criteria assigned by stochastic methods to take into account material heterogeneity. Tests are performed by producing radial cavity expansion models of thinly sliced cylindrical specimens. The introduction of element-wise allocation of fracture parameters generates instances of specimen failure without the requirement of predefined fracture zones, permitting discontinuities to form naturally within zones containing weak strength parameters. The parallel application of an in-house Python scripts and eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) facilitates the investigation of heterogeneity effects on the tensile strength of intermediate geotechnical materials.