Abstract
Due to their heterogeneity, fracture in rocks as well as the artificial rock-concrete propagates with a dispersed band of microcracks at the front. The progressive formation of the microcracks is described by a triaxial stress-strain relation which exhibits a gradual strain-softening. The stiffness matrix of a material intersected by a system of parallel continuously distributed cracks is obtained in the limit. The area under the stress-strain curve, multiplied by the width of the crack band (fracture process zone) represents the fracture energy. The resulting fracture theory is characterized by three independent parameters, the fracture energy, the tensile strength, and the width of the crack band, the latter being empirically found to approximately equal five-times the grain size in rock. The formulation lends itself easily to a finite element analysis which is employed to calibrate the theory by fitting various test data on rock fracture available in the literature. Refs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Unknown Host Publication Title |
| Editors | Z. Eisenstein |
| Publisher | A. A. Balkema |
| Pages | 1137-1152 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9061912431 |
| State | Published - Dec 1 1982 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Engineering