Abstract: A numerical method, RFPA^2D used in analysis of rock failure process, is applied to study the influence of macroscopic heterogeneity on macroscopic mechanical behavior of rock failure and seismic sequence types. The failure processes of rock samples with 5 different kinds of macroscopic heterogeneity are simulated by numerical calculations. The results show that rock failure with different heterogeneities can produce different seismic sequence types, mainly including: foreshock-main shock-aftershock, main shock and swarm type. Besides, the numerical simulation of rock failure with 5 different kinds of heterogeneities shows that the macroscopic heterogeneities affected the non-linear behavior of rock deformation and macroscopic strength as will as failure mode obviously. With the decreasing of heterogeneity, the main failure process presents brittle behavior, and vice versa, with the increasing of heterogeneity, failure process presents ductile behavior.

Key words: Macroscopic heterogeneity, Failure process, Seismic sequence type, Strain localization