Numerical Modeling of the Thermal Effect on Wildfire-Burnt Quasi-Brittle Rocks
Publication: Geo-Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
Increment of wildfire causes numerous disturbances and irregularities that jeopardize a sustainable society and reliable infrastructure. Due to the rigorous burns, the soil particles may breakdown due to thermal effects leading to a significant loss of the physical and mechanical properties of the soil mass, including reduced modules and strength and subsequent major problems such as soil erosion and near-surface slope slides. Many ambiguities are tied up with the multi-physics process of wildfire-burnt soil, the vegetation anchoring effect on soil strength, and the alteration of micro-scale soil properties. This study presents an innovative thermal-mechanical coupled model to simulate rock damage and breakage during heating-cooling processes. A series of simulations are carried out to capture the behaviors of rock samples under heating-cooling and subsequent compressive loadings using a two-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) model. The results suggest that the effect of mild wildfire on the strength and modulus reduction of rock is negligible. But the reduction of strength and modulus could be as high as 53% and 12%, respectively, under severe wildfire conditions.
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Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2024
Pages: 213 - 223
History
Published online: Feb 22, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Disaster risk management
- Disasters and hazards
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering mechanics
- Erosion
- Geology
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Models (by type)
- Natural disasters
- Numerical models
- Rocks
- Soil loss
- Soil mechanics
- Soil properties
- Soil strength
- Thermal analysis
- Thermodynamics
- Two-dimensional models
- Wild fires
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