In-plane shear crack sub-critical propagation of rock at high temperature was studied by finite element method and shear-box(i.e.compression-shear) test with newly designed electrically conductive adhesive method.Numerical and experimental results show that the normalized shear(Mode Ⅱ) stress intensity factors,K ⅡT/KT0 is decreased as the temperature increases because high temperature can improve stress distribution at crack tip and reduce the Mode Ⅱ stress intensity factor.Microscopic features of fractured surface are of little pits and secondary micro-cracks in the vicinity(1.5-4.0 mm) of the crack tip.The chevron-shape secondary cracks gradually merge in the length of about 4-5 mm and disappear along the direction of crack propagation.Stable shear crack propagation time is increased with the increasing temperature while the stable shear crack propagation rate is decreased with the increasing temperature,since high temperature can increase the shear(Mode Ⅱ) fracture toughness and prevent the crack growth.It is necessary to ensure the ligament of specimen long enough to measure the maximum unstable crack propagation rate of rock.
Shear-box(i.e.compression-shear) test and newly designed electrically conductive adhesive method were used to measure shear crack sub-critical propagation time and rate of sandstone specimen.Different cubic specimens with and without holes were tested to study the effect of holes on the shear crack sub-critical propagation.Numerical and experimental results show that three independent variables of hole,the interval distance S,the distance between the center of hole and the crack tip L,and hole radius R,have different contribution to the ratio of stress intensity factor of the specimen with holes to that of the specimen without hole,KⅡ/KⅡ0.Increasing S and decreasing L and R will result in the decrease of KⅡ/KⅡ0 and help crack arrest.The weight relation of the independent variables for KⅡ/KⅡ0 is S>L>R.The specimen DH3 with the largest value of S and the smallest values of L and R has the longest sub-critical crack propagation time and the smallest sub-critical crack propagation rate.Adding two suitable holes symmetrically to the original crack plane in rock specimen is considered to be a potential method for crack arrest of rock.
Anti-plane punch-through shear test and anti-planefour-point bending test are used to study the crack initiation and propagation under anti-plane shear (Mode Ⅲ) loading. The tensile and shear stresses at the crack tip are calculated by finite element method. The results show that under Mode Ⅲ loading the maximum principal stress σ1 at crack tip is smaller or a little larger than the maximum shear stress τmax. Since the tensile strength of brittle rock is much lower than its shear strength, σ1 is easy to reach its critical value before τmax reaches its critical value and thus results in Mode I fracture. The fracture trajectory is helicoid and the normal direction of tangential plane with the fractured helicoid is along the predicted direction of the maximum principal stress at the notch tip. It is further proved that Mode Ⅰ instead of Mode Ⅲ fracture occurs in brittle rock under Mode Ⅲ loading. The fracture mode depending on the fracture mechanism must be distinguished from the loading form.
