Thermo‐Mechanical Peridynamic Analysis of Ice‐Induced Damage and Splitting Failure in Frozen Rocks

ABSTRACT The mechanical properties of rock masses, such as strength, stiffness, and fracture toughness, are significantly affected by low‐temperature freezing conditions. A thorough understanding of the splitting failure mechanisms of frozen rocks is crucial for ensuring the safety and stability of rock structures in cold regions. Therefore, an improved fully coupled thermo‐mechanical model based on the ordinary state‐based peridynamic (OSBPD) theory was developed to investigate the fracture behavior of frozen specimens subjected to the Brazilian splitting test. The established model introduced an equivalent body force density to quantitatively characterize the coupled effects of ice‐induced frost heave, cementation, and support. A collaborative simulation strategy for the temperature and deformation fields was also proposed, enabling the effective capture of bidirectional interactions between multiple physical fields. Furthermore, a particle combination allocation method was employed to eliminate the staircase effect at circular boundaries inherent in traditional discretization schemes. The effectiveness of the improved OSBPD model was validated through simulations of the thermo‐mechanical coupling process of a ring specimen and the splitting response of frozen rocks. On this basis, the present study further explores the damage evolution and crack propagation patterns of frozen rocks containing randomly distributed flaws. The research results indicate that: (1) the inclination angle of prefabricated flaws has a significant effect on the splitting failure mode of frozen rock masses; and (2) when the loading direction aligns with the prefabricated flaw, many secondary cracks with tortuous propagation paths form at the flaw tips.