On the four-dimensional lattice spring model for geomechanics

Recently, a four-dimensional lattice spring model (4D-LSM) was developed to overcome the Poisson's ratio limitation of the classical LSM by introducing the fourth-dimensional spatial interaction. In this work, some aspects of the 4D-LSM on solving problems in geomechanics are investigated, such as the ability to reproduce elastic properties of geomaterials, the capability of solving heterogeneous problems, the accuracy on modelling stress wave propagation, the ability to solve dynamic fracturing and the parallel computational efficiency. Our results indicate that the 4D-LSM is promising to deal with problems in geomechanics.