The purpose of this paper is to establish a methodology to determine the equivalent elastic properties of fractured rock masses by explicit representations of stochastic fracture systems, and to investigate the conditions for the application of the equivalent continuum approach for representing mechanical behavior of the fractured rock masses. A series of numerical simulations of mechanical deformation of fractured rock masses at different scales were conducted with a large number of realisations of discrete fracture networks (DFN), based on realistic fracture system information and using the two-dimensional distinct element program, UDEC. General theory of anisotropic elasticity was used for describing the macroscopic mechanical behavior of fractured rock masses as equivalent elastic continua. Verification of the methodology for determining the elastic compliance tensor was conducted against closed-form solutions for regularly fractured rock mass, leading to very good agreements. The main advantage of the developed methodology using the distinct element method is that it can consider complex fracture system geometry and various constitutive relations of fractures and rock matrix, and their interactions. Two criteria for the applicability of equivalent continuum approach were adopted from the investigations: (i) the existence of a properly defined REV (representative elementary volume) and (ii) the existence of an elastic compliance tensor. For the problems with in situ conditions studied in this paper, the results show that a REV can be defined and the elastic properties of the fractured rock mass can be represented approximately by the elastic compliance tensor through numerical simulations.
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