A Thermo-Mechanical Coupled Gradient Damage Model for Heterogeneous Rocks Based on the Weibull Distribution

Juan Jin, Ying Zhou (), Hua Long, Shijun Chen, Hanwei Huang, Jiandong Liu and Wei Cheng
Additional contact information
Juan Jin: Key Laboratory of Oil & Gas Production, CNPC, Beijing 100083, China
Ying Zhou: Liaohe Oilfield, PetroChina, Panjin 124010, China
Hua Long: Liaohe Oilfield, PetroChina, Panjin 124010, China
Shijun Chen: National Energy Tight Oil and Gas R&D Center, Beijing 100083, China
Hanwei Huang: National Energy Tight Oil and Gas R&D Center, Beijing 100083, China
Jiandong Liu: Key Laboratory of Oil & Gas Production, CNPC, Beijing 100083, China
Wei Cheng: Key Laboratory of Oil & Gas Production, CNPC, Beijing 100083, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-23

Abstract: This study develops a thermo-mechanical damage (TMD) model for predicting damage evolution in heterogeneous rock materials after heat treatment. The TMD model employs a Weibull distribution to characterize the spatial heterogeneity of the mechanical properties of rock materials and develops a framework that incorporates thermal effects into a nonlocal gradient damage model, thereby overcoming the mesh dependency issue inherent in homogeneous local damage models. The model is validated by numerical simulations of a notched cruciform specimen subjected to combined mechanical and thermal loading, confirming its capability in thermo-mechanical coupled scenarios. Sensitivity analysis shows increased material heterogeneity promotes localized, X-shaped shear-dominated failure patterns, while lower heterogeneity produces more diffuse, network-like damage distributions. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that thermal loading induces micro-damage that progressively spreads throughout the specimen, resulting in a significant reduction in both overall stiffness and critical strength; this effect becomes increasingly pronounced at higher heating temperatures. These findings demonstrate the model’s ability to predict the mechanical behavior of heterogeneous rock materials under thermal loading, offering valuable insights for safety assessments in high-temperature geotechnical engineering applications.

Keywords: thermo-mechanical coupling; rock failure; heterogeneity; gradient damage model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/17/4699/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/17/4699/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:17:p:4699-:d:1741942

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Cassie Shen

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().