Transient Fracture Mechanics (TFM^™)

The TFM^™ method extends the CFM method by computing the full transient pressure history at the tip of each rock joint while the rock bridge breaks.

• synthetic pressure records generated at the joint entrances from the local mean and fluctuating pressures
• nonlinear two-phase water-hammer solver: the wave celerity depends on the pressure (free and dissolved air)
• crack length and loading factors updated as the rock bridge breaks
• pressure amplification and resonance captured
• calibrated on closed-end rock joint measurements (Bollaert 2002)
• available in the 2D and 3D DFN rock mass models