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The Effects of Crack Openings on Crack Initiation, Propagation and Coalescence Behavior in Rock-Like Materials Under Uniaxial Compression

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Abstract

This paper experimentally investigates the cracking behavior of rock-like specimens containing artificial open flaws under uniaxial compressive loads. The present experiments mainly focus on the effects of crack openings on crack propagation and coalescence behavior in rock-like materials under uniaxial compression. The real-time crack coalescence processes in the specimens with different crack openings are analyzed. The experimental results show that the crack openings significantly affect the crack initiation stresses and the crack initiation modes. The initiation stresses of wing cracks and coplanar secondary cracks decrease with increasing crack openings. However, the initiation stress of anti-wing cracks increases with increasing crack openings. Moreover, five types of crack coalescence in the specimens containing three pre-existing open flaws under uniaxial compression are observed. The effects of crack openings on the mechanical properties of rock-like materials, which include the complete axial stress–strain curves, peak stresses, peak strains and initiation stresses, are investigated in detail.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by project 973 (Grant No. 2014CB046903), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51325903 and 51279218), the Natural Science Foundation Project of CQ CSTC (Nos. CSTC, cstc2013kjrcljrccj0001 and cstc2013jcyjys30002), the research fund of the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20130191110037) and the Chongqing Graduate Student Research Innovation Project (No. CYB14017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Hao Cheng & Xiaoping Zhou

  2. School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Hao Cheng, Xiaoping Zhou & Jiang Zhu

  3. Engineering Institute of Engineering Corps, PLA University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210007, China

    Qihu Qian

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  1. Hao Cheng
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  2. Xiaoping Zhou
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  3. Jiang Zhu
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  4. Qihu Qian
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Correspondence to Xiaoping Zhou.

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Cheng, H., Zhou, X., Zhu, J. et al. The Effects of Crack Openings on Crack Initiation, Propagation and Coalescence Behavior in Rock-Like Materials Under Uniaxial Compression. Rock Mech Rock Eng 49, 3481–3494 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-016-0998-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-016-0998-9

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