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Fracture Coalescence Process Between Two Pre-existing Flaws in Granite Based on Coupling Exterior and Interior Observation Techniques

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Abstract

Though the exterior cracking process of flawed rocks has been studied intensively, the exterior and interior coalescence process, especially from the aspect of micro-crack development, has not been systematically studied. In the present study, the acoustic emission (AE) techniques and digital image correlation (DIC) are applied together to monitor the damage process of double-flawed granite samples under uniaxial compression. Multiple AE signal characteristics, including cumulative event, ring count, waveform frequency, initial frequency (IF), and rise angle (RA) are utilized to analyze the evolution of the coalescence properties before and after the initiation of macro-cracks. The experimental result indicates that the exterior and interior fractures in microscopic and macroscopic scales can be identified from the combination of AE parameters and DIC results. In the early stage of loading, most initiated micro-cracks are attributed to tensile mode based on the analysis of IF and RA values, while the strain concentration cannot be conspicuously observed by the DIC technique. Then, the micro-crack mode changes from tensile to shear or mixed mode with the reduction of the average IF value. With the initiation of macro-cracks, the RA value increases accordingly, and the deformation around the crack pattern can be obviously recognized by the DIC strain field. The property of the coalescence strongly depends on the flaw geometries. When increasing the bridging angle β, the crack mode of the coalescence varies from shear to mixed tensile–shear or pure tensile (β ≤ 90°) and to a more complex mode (β > 90°).

Highlights

  • Multiple AE parameters are used to characterize the damage and cracking process.

  • Eight modes of crack coalescence are observed .

  • The crack initiation and coalescence in different scales can be identified by DIC and AE methods.

  • The crack mechanism is studied by more AE parameters other than AE events and localization.

  • The changes of microcrack mode from tensile to mixed tensile-shear are found.

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Data availability

The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

AE:

Acoustic emission

2a, 2b :

The flaw length and ligament length

α, β :

The flaw angle and bridging angle

Dα-β :

Sample containing two parallel flaws with flaw angle α and bridging angle β

Sα :

Sample containing single flaw with flaw angle α

IF:

Initial frequency of AE waveform

AF:

Average frequency of AE waveform

PF:

Peak frequency of AE waveform

RT:

Rising time of AE waveform

QP, SP, HGP:

AE quiet period, stable period and high growth period

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52278504, 51809137), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20220141), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M681610).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China

    Guokai Zhang, Mingyang Wang & Zhen Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Haibo Li

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Chunjiang Zou

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  1. Guokai Zhang
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Correspondence to Chunjiang Zou.

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Zhang, G., Li, H., Zou, C. et al. Fracture Coalescence Process Between Two Pre-existing Flaws in Granite Based on Coupling Exterior and Interior Observation Techniques. Rock Mech Rock Eng 56, 5543–5566 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-023-03337-9

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