International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Identification of fluid-entry clusters and diagnosis of downhole events based on high-frequency water hammer pressure","authors":"Shuangshuang Sun ,&nbsp;Yongming He ,&nbsp;Lijun Liu ,&nbsp;Yanchao Li ,&nbsp;Longqing Zou ,&nbsp;Liang Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106437","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106437","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurate identification of fluid-entry clusters during hydraulic fracturing, and fine-scale diagnosis of downhole fracturing events, are crucial for optimizing fracturing design and enhancing reservoir stimulation performance. However, existing water hammer pressure-based monitoring methods for fracturing are mostly limited to identifying the dominant fluid-entry cluster within a stage and struggle to provide a fine-scale diagnosis of downhole fracturing events. This study establishes a fracturing monitoring method based on high-frequency water hammer pressure. By performing time-domain and frequency-domain analysis on the high-frequency water hammer signal and employing a composite filtering method, the signal quality was significantly enhanced. Furthermore, this study achieved the identification of multiple fluid-entry clusters within a stage and the fine-scale diagnosis of downhole fracturing events through cepstrum analysis and time-depth conversion, as well as the effective characterization of the dynamic distribution of fracturing fluid under different conditions. Verification with simulated data confirms that the identification results are consistent with the simulation settings, thus validating the reliability of the method. Field application has enabled the fine-scale diagnosis of downhole fracturing events such as diverter effectiveness, plug leakage, and plug slippage, and further analyzed the cepstral response characteristics and treating pressure curve characteristics associated with different events. The proposed method provides an effective tool for diagnosing fracturing conditions during field operations, thereby offering valuable insights for optimizing fracturing design and enhancing reservoir stimulation effectiveness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 106437"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146110177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of fracture shear dilation on flow anisotropy for variable normal stress and fracture size","authors":"Jinkyo Lee ,&nbsp;Ki-Bok Min ,&nbsp;Liangchao Zou ,&nbsp;Vladimir Cvetkovic","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106428","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106428","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fracture shear can induce flow channeling within the fracture plane, enhancing flow perpendicular to the fracture shear direction. The resulting flow anisotropy is crucial for determining optimal well locations at geothermal sites, where efficient heat extraction relies on productive fluid circulation. This research examines the impact of shear on flow anisotropy under variable conditions of normal stress, shear displacement, and fracture size. The research comprises three main stages: (1) simulating fracture shear incorporating asperity degradation, (2) modeling preferential fluid flow within a sheared fracture, and (3) upscaling the laboratory-scale results to the reservoir scale of a hundred-meter. Two fracture surfaces with dimensions of 10 <span><math><mrow><mo>×</mo></mrow></math></span> 10 cm and one fracture surface with a dimension of 1<span><math><mrow><mo>×</mo></mrow></math></span> 1m are used for analysis. A numerical shear model based on elastic-plastic contact mechanics is employed to simulate asperity degradation during shear. Flow simulation on a sheared surface reveal significantly increased permeability anisotropy ratio defined as the ratio of permeability perpendicular to parallel to the shear direction. This permeability anisotropy ratio still prevailed and even increased with higher normal stress, emphasizing the importance of considering flow anisotropy under high-stress conditions. The effect of fracture sizes is investigated using square fractures with side length from 10 cm to 60 cm, extracted from the 1<span><math><mrow><mo>×</mo></mrow></math></span> 1m fracture. While increasing fracture size led to higher permeability and reduced variation in flow anisotropy across the fractures, anisotropy remained evident and significant. To investigate the effect of anisotropy in reservoir scale, a hundred-meter scale reservoir model with an upscaled sheared fracture was constructed. Injection tests showed that higher flow rates were observed when injection and production wells were positioned perpendicular to shear. The results demonstrate that perpendicular flow is enhanced both at the laboratory and reservoir scale, highlighting the importance of considering the influence of fracture shear on flow anisotropy for optimizing well locations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 106428"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146110833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Structural barriers to complete homogenization and wormholing in dissolving porous and fractured rocks","authors":"Tomasz Szawełło ,&nbsp;Jeffrey D. Hyman ,&nbsp;Peter K. Kang ,&nbsp;Piotr Szymczak","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106431","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106431","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dissolution in porous media and fractured rocks alters both the chemical composition of the fluid and the physical properties of the solid. Depending on system conditions, reactive flow may enlarge pores uniformly, widen pre-existing channels, or trigger instabilities that form wormholes. The resulting pattern reflects feedbacks among advection, diffusion, surface reaction, and the initial heterogeneity of the medium. Porous and fractured media can exhibit distinct characteristics — for example, the presence of large fractures can significantly alter the network topology and overall connectivity of the system. We quantify these differences with three network models — a regular pore network, a disordered pore network, and a discrete fracture network — evaluated with a unified metric: the flow focusing profile. This metric effectively captures evolution of flow paths across all systems: it reveals a focusing front that propagates from the inlet in the wormholing regime, a system-wide decrease in focusing during uniform dissolution, and the progressive enlargement of pre-existing flow paths in the channeling regime. The metric shows that uniform dissolution cannot eliminate heterogeneity resulting from the network topology. This structural heterogeneity — rather than just pore-diameter or fracture-aperture variance — sets a fundamental limit on flow homogenization and must be accounted for when upscaling dissolution kinetics from pore or fracture scale to the reservoir level.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 106431"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146081848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Study on non-convexity for Zhang-Zhu strength criterion based on microfracture mechanics","authors":"Qi Zhang ,&nbsp;Yixin Shen ,&nbsp;Hehua Zhu ,&nbsp;Xiaojun Wang ,&nbsp;Yuechao Pei","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106452","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106452","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Zhang-Zhu (ZZ) strength criterion, as a three-dimensional Hoek-Brown strength criterion, accurately characterizes the deep rock failure under the true triaxial stress condition (<em>σ</em>₁&gt;<em>σ</em>₂&gt;<em>σ</em>₃). However, its failure envelope in the deviatoric plane shows non-smoothness and non-convexity, with the underlying physical mechanism for the non-convexity requiring further exploration. This study derives a micro-Zhang-Zhu (micro-ZZ) strength criterion from the microfracture mechanics, following the formulation of the ZZ strength criterion. The validation against the true triaxial test reveals that 87.2% of the data points fall within a ±5% relative error, indicating that fracture behavior from microcrack clusters is strongly consistent with true triaxial test results. The micro-ZZ strength criterion shows a maximum mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of only 2.39% relative to the ZZ strength criterion, confirming its high consistency with the ZZ strength criterion. Therefore, a correlation between microfracture mechanisms and macroscopic non-convexity of the Zhang-Zhu strength criterion is established based on the micro-ZZ strength criterion. The failure envelopes of both strength criteria closely match, exhibiting strong agreement in their intersection angles <em>θ</em>_<em>d</em>. The effect of the microcrack density on the non-convexity is further explored to reveal the underlying physical mechanism of non-convexity. The results indicate that the non-convexity increases with the microcrack density and approaches 90° as the density tends to zero, indicating the microcrack is one of the micromechanical mechanisms contributing to the non-convexity. Finally, the effects of parameters on the non-convexity and the sensitivity of these parameters are discussed. Five stress state and material parameters influence the non-convexity, with the friction coefficient <em>μ</em> and the compression-extension stress ratio <em>σ</em>_<em>c</em>/<em>σ</em>_<em>t</em> identified as the dominant parameters, with the strongest interaction between them.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 106452"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hydraulic convergence-confinement method","authors":"J.H. Jeong ,&nbsp;Y.J. Shin ,&nbsp;S.H. Kim ,&nbsp;J.H. Shin","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106439","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106439","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Groundwater control is a primary concern during tunnel excavation, and addressing groundwater issues has remained one of the key challenges in tunnel engineering. While extensive research has been conducted on the mechanical behaviour hydraulic considerations in tunnel design have largely been limited to evaluating groundwater inflow rates and water pressure acting on the lining. This research investigates hydraulic equilibrium process and drainage control mechanisms associated with tunnelling. Through theoretical analysis, the hydraulic response of the ground and tunnel lining were examined assuming laminar flow through a homogeneous and stiff rock mass, leading to the development of the hydraulic convergence-confinement concept (HCC). This proposed concept was validated through numerical simulations and small-scale model tests. The results show that the HCC is analogous to the mechanical convergence-confinement concept which elucidates the mechanical principles of tunnel formation, and it is identified as an effective tool for explaining hydraulic behaviour caused by tunnelling. The introduction of the HCC provides a hydraulic control framework for interpreting hydraulic equilibrium during tunnel excavation. It also offers a conceptual basis for hydraulic tunnel design, enabling the establishment of arbitrary design hydraulic boundary conditions. Furthermore, the HCC offers a logical foundation for the limited-drainage tunnel concept, which aims to restrict tunnel inflow and/or control the groundwater-table drawdown.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 106439"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Experimental insights into CO2 flow in fractured crystalline rock","authors":"Nikita Bondarenko ,&nbsp;Hyunbin Kim ,&nbsp;Kiseok Kim ,&nbsp;Roman Y. Makhnenko","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106443","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106443","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The injection of carbon dioxide (CO₂) or the non-wetting fluid intrusion into crystalline rock remains being a poorly understood process due to the complexities in characterizing very low permeable and stiff geomaterials. This knowledge gap is critical for enhanced geothermal systems and in-situ carbon mineralization projects where CO₂ may serve as a mobile fluid within fractured crystalline formations. Most of the existing studies rely on numerical simulations with limited experimental validations and do not fully consider the complexity of multi-phase flow. Hereby, we adopt a novel method to evaluate the degree of saturation of the non-wetting fluid in a tight rock with nanometer scale pore sizes from accurate poromechanical and hydraulic measurements, as well as wetting and non-wetting fluid characteristics. We select thermally damaged granite and naturally fractured rhyolite as representative crystalline rock, fully saturate them with water, and perform simultaneous injection of water and liquid CO₂. The flow properties are measured using the core flooding device that allows observation of multiple fluid flow at controlled rates. CO₂ breakthrough pressures for pressurized fractured crystalline rock are measured to be on the order of 0.1–1 MPa. The exponent values for relative water permeabilities are 1.6 for granite and 1.9 for rhyolite – significantly lower than those typically reported for tight rock, meaning that the fluid flow is mainly governed by the fractures. The exponent values for relative CO₂ permeability are above 5.5, indicating high sensitivity to the degree of CO₂ saturation. Moreover, CO₂ saturation appears to remain below 50%, even when CO₂ is the only injected fluid and its overpressures exceeds 6 MPa. Overall, this study highlights significant limitations in using CO₂ as a working fluid for geoenergy projects in crystalline rock.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 106443"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An intelligent recognition and classification method for TBM tunnel surrounding rock based on cross-attention transformer and multi-source data fusion","authors":"Chen Xu ,&nbsp;Chao Wang ,&nbsp;Mingchao Li ,&nbsp;Xiaoli Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106438","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106438","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurate classification of surrounding rock is vital for ensuring the safety and efficiency of TBM operations. To address the limitations of existing methods, which often overlook ascending-stage dynamics, encounter difficulties in multi-source data fusion, and lack interpretability, this study proposes a Cross-Attention Transformer with XGBoost (CA-Trans-XGBoost). The study uses Section IV of the Yinsong Water Diversion Project as a case study, collecting and organizing 802 days of operational data and cutter replacement records. A Transformer encoder was applied to extract dynamic features from the ascending stage, while an MLP modeled structured features from the stable stage. A cross-attention mechanism was introduced to enhance feature interaction, and fused features were further processed with XGBoost for classification and feature importance analysis. Results show that CA-Trans-XGBoost achieves the best performance among six models, with an Accuracy, Precision, Recall, and Macro-F1 of 95.0 %, 93.6 %, 92.6 %, and 92.9 %, respectively. The model shows clear advantages in identifying minority classes II and V. Further analysis confirms that a 30-s ascending stage is the optimal temporal window. The proposed method balances predictive accuracy and interpretability, providing support for intelligent TBM excavation and parameter optimization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 106438"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146146555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coalescence of a subcritical crack pair in carbonate rocks upon acidizing","authors":"Xiao-Jie Tang ,&nbsp;Si-Han Zhou ,&nbsp;Man-Man Hu","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106414","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106414","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>For chemically assisted cracking in tight low-permeable carbonate-rich reservoirs, crack growth and coalescence are driven by a complex interplay between stress redistribution, mineral dissolution, elasto-viscoplastic deformation, damage-enhanced specific surface area, and evolving permeability. Albeit that extensive research exists on crack initiation and growth, little has been found focusing on the underlying mechanism of how two adjacent cracks interact and coalesce through their tips - driven by a combined effect of chemical erosion and internal pressurization. Here we adopt a fully coupled reactive chemo-mechanical model for investigating the coalescence of the propagating plasticity zones around two adjacent crack-tips that precede the subcritical growth of the cracks. The constitutive framework captures time-dependent processes including proton diffusion, dissolution-induced stiffness degradation, damage evolution, chemical alteration of the yield limits, and micro-cracking feedback. The implemented formulation is applied to a pair of internally pressurized blunt-tip collinear cracks exposed to a weak-acidic solution. Our results show that the crack pair coalescence undergoes a multi-stage subcritical development: (i) a quasi-linear mechanically dominated initial (incubation) phase, (ii) a dissolution-enhanced softening phase once an accumulated mass-removal threshold is reached, and (iii) a secondary acceleration phase upon the onset when the two propagating plasticity zones coalesce in the ligament between the crack-tips. It is illustrated that an intensified acidity, or a higher rock susceptibility to micro-cracking, amplifies positive feedback between damage evolution and chemical dissolution, markedly enhancing crack growth. Mild intrinsic heterogeneity seeds further accelerate the process zone interaction and crack coalescence, through forming networks of orthogonal micro-deformation bands in front of the crack-tips.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"199 ","pages":"Article 106414"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145980633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Deterioration characteristics of red beds lithological interface under water-rock interaction and its influence on tunnel deformation","authors":"Jingkai Qu ,&nbsp;Yiguo Xue ,&nbsp;Fanmeng Kong ,&nbsp;Cuiying Zhou ,&nbsp;Jianbing Peng ,&nbsp;Su Yan ,&nbsp;Zhen Liu ,&nbsp;Zhuang Ruan ,&nbsp;Mingdong Zang ,&nbsp;Kang Fu ,&nbsp;Bo Wang ,&nbsp;Minghao Jia ,&nbsp;Ze Shi ,&nbsp;Ziming Qu ,&nbsp;Huaibing Wang ,&nbsp;Xinyu Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106434","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106434","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Red beds exhibit pronounced hydro-sensitivity and softening characteristics, which commonly trigger significant tunnel deformation and instability hazards. Based on the Fengtun Tunnel deformation in China, this study employs an integrated methodology to reveal the deterioration characteristics of red beds lithological interfaces under water-rock interaction and their control on tunnel deformation. The results indicate that deformation is intense during the initial excavation stage, with maximum rates reaching 20 mm/d. More than 75 % of the cumulative deformation occurs prior to initial support of invert. Notably, the deformation exhibits extreme sensitivity at the mudstone-sandstone interface, characterized by drastic fluctuations in deformation rates. The fundamental cause of this behavior lies in the distinct deterioration modes of the two rock types under water-rock interaction. Following saturation, the mudstone uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus decrease by 37 % and 55 %, respectively, due to cement dissolution and mineral loss. Conversely, the sandstone exhibits only a minor strength reduction of 3 % and 15 %, respectively, though its porosity increases significantly. This differential degradation drives an evolution in the deformation mechanism, shifting from “stress driven” mode in the mudstone section to “hydro-mechanically driven” mode in the sandstone section. This transition generates a displacement differential of up to 30.0 mm between spandrel and arch waist on the same side. The consequent concentration of asymmetric shear stress on the support structure is identified as the root cause of localized shear failure. This research provides a scientific basis for disaster prevention and the design of resilient support systems in red beds tunnels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"199 ","pages":"Article 106434"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146072441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Parametric calibration in bonded block models for simulating mechanical behaviours of intact rocks using machine learning","authors":"Fengchang Bu ,&nbsp;Ruoshen Lin ,&nbsp;Michel Jaboyedoff ,&nbsp;Wei Liu ,&nbsp;Lei Xue","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106400","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2026.106400","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite widespread adoption of the bonded block model (BBM) in modelling intact rocks, the calibration of BBM modelling parameters remains a significant challenge, undermining the trustworthiness of BBM-simulated results. Existing trial-and-error and sensitivity analyses for calibration suffer from inefficiency, subjectivity, and difficulty in establishing the high-dimensional and nonlinear complex mapping from modelling parameters to modelled properties in BBM. To address this issue, built on BBM-based universal distinct element code (UDEC), we employed machine learning to clarify this complex mapping. A comprehensive numerical database with 3456 UDEC simulations was constructed for training machine learning models, followed by the selection of the optimal machine learning models by comparing their predictive performances. Subsequently, we collected experimental data from 99 rock types that served as modelled properties to be input into the selected trained machine learning models. Through an inversion by integrating grid search, the corresponding modelling parameters could be output, that is, the machine learning–calibrated modelling parameters. They were further imported into UDEC to perform another 1485 simulations to validate their reliability and robustness. It was also found that both lithology and block size affect calibration accuracy differently across modelled properties. In applying the framework, specific rock model configuration may be considered when establishing the numerical database, including the constitutive laws of blocks and contacts and specific rock structure. This study provides an effective solution for parametric calibration in BBM, advancing more reliable use of BBM in scientific and engineering contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"199 ","pages":"Article 106400"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145908713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}