Study of the brittle fracture process under uniaxial compression

Abstract

Static friction along inclined cracks in photoelastic models increases with both the loading and frictional displacement before the larger crack-wall asperities are broken or completely over-ridden. Elastic shocks resulting from successive stick-slip during this stage can be repeated more or less indefinitely with repeated loading and unloading. Locked-in residual stresses, especially around crack tips, result when the model is unloaded, because of frictional coupling between crack walls. Favorable crack arrays for initial growth in the model include particular sets of en-echelon cracks inclined 45° to the stress axis, but the critical orientation may be smaller in brittle rock if crack-wall friction in rock is greater than in the model. Axial growth of en-echelon cleavage cracks, inclined at angles smaller than 45°, was observed in feldspar during deformation of a pegmatite having a mineralogy and texture similar to granite. Their growth follows predictions derived from photoelastic model studies.

Crack growth in the pegmatite begins between half and two-thirds of the ultimate strength. The first flaws to grow, however, also include pre-existing axially oriented cleavage cracks in the feldspar. Crack growth occurs randomly throughout the specimen as stress is increased, without much evidence that grain boundaries are activated for crack growth. But when the applied stress approaches the ultimate strength, two new features are observed. There is an abrupt development of finite frictional slip along favorably inclined flaws and grain boundaries, beginning with displacements of the order of the dimensions of grain-boundary asperities. Crack growth still occurs at various locations throughout the specimen at this stage, but there is also a detectable concentration of growth along potential shear zones. Flaw-wall friction appears to be one of the critical factors that determine the pegmatite's ultimate strength and the instability of through-going fracture.