Crack Initiation Behaviors of Granite Specimens Containing Crossing-Double-Flaws with Different Lengths under Uniaxial Loading

Crack initiation is an important stage in the failure process of rock masses. In this paper, crack initiation behaviors (crack initiation model, crack initiation location, crack initiation angle, and crack initiation stress) of granite specimens containing crossing-double-flaws with different lengths were investigated using PFC2^Dsoftware. Crack initiation models were all tensile wing cracks, which did not exactly initiate from the main flaw with a length of 30 mm. They can initiate from the secondary flaw with a length 20 mm atαof 30° (included angle between main flaw and horizontal direction) andβof 90° (included angle between main and secondary flaws) and from main and secondary flaws atαof 30° andβof 60°. These were mainly induced by the superposition of stress fields around the main and secondary flaws asβvaried from 0° to 90°, especially the tensile force concentration zones superposition. The tensile forces concentration zone around flaw shrank towards flaw tips with the increase of flaw’s inclinations measured horizontally. Under stress field superposition effects, the crack initiation stress decreased firstly and then increased withβatαof 30° and 45°. Crack initiation locations were close to flaw tips but not restricted to them. The distances between crack initiation locations and flaw tips, and the crack initiation angles depended on the flaw where first macrocracks initiated from. Microdisplacement field distributions of granite specimens to reveal the mesomechanism of crack initiation behaviors were discussed.

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