Fracture Behavior of Rock under Triaxial Compression: A Numerical Study

• Confining pressure profoundly alters rock fracture patterns, shifting from axial splitting to shear band formation as confinement increases. • The coupled FDEM approach effectively captures the transition in failure modes and the associated acoustic emission signatures. • Energy dissipation analysis reveals that shear-dominated failure consumes more energy than tensile splitting, correlating with higher confining pressures. • The numerical results align with experimental observations, validating the model's capability to simulate realistic rock fracture behavior under triaxial conditions.