STONE 3D (Synthesis of Digital Models for the Study of Rocky Massifs in 3D)

The understanding of the mechanical behavior of geological masses is at the heart of development and exploitation projects of the ground and the subsoil, particularly in the fields of mining, petroleum and civil engineering. However, geological masses are very heterogeneous complex objects whose mechanical behavior, controlled by both the rock matrix and fracturing, is difficult to anticipate without modeling. The current major difficulty is that numerical and/or analogical modelling is limited by the computational and/or construction capabilities of fractured media. This forces the user to strongly simplify the geometries and materials used, which limits the cases of study. The first objective of the STONE 3D project is to demonstrate the feasibility of 3D analogical modeling by additive manufacturing of discontinuous geological masses (volume greater than 1m3). This extremely promising technique will allow the construction of scale models of rock masses with significantly more complex and realistic geometries which will also be able to contain scale models of structures, of real multi-decametric size.