Formulation of a three-dimensional numerical manifold method with tetrahedron and hexahedron elements

Numerical Manifold Method (NMM) is an extension of Discontinuous Deformation Analysis which contains and combines FEM and joint/block oriented DDA in a unified form. At present, application of NMM is mainly limited to two-dimensional analysis which is not realistic for many underground excavation works. In the present paper, three-dimensional NMM based on tetrahedron and hexahedron elements is proposed. The corresponding three-dimensional cover contact detection algorithms which have some fundamental properties different from the corresponding two-dimensional analysis are also developed. Based on the present formulations, engineering problems with arbitrarily oriented discontinuities can be modeled and realistic modeling of construction works becomes possible.Department of Civil and Environmental Engineerin