Effects of flaw width on cracking behavior of single-flawed rock specimens

Abstract

Cracking behavior of flawed samples has been extensively studied in rocks and rock-like materials using experimental and numerical approaches. However, the existing research mainly focuses on the effects of flaw length l and inclination angle α on rock mechanical behavior, a limited attention has been given to understand the role of flaw width b on crack initiation and propagation in relation to mechanical parameters of rocks. In this paper, a two-dimensional particle flow code (PFC2D)-based synthetic rock model, which is calibrated by the laboratory sandstone properties, is used to investigate the effects of flaw width on cracking behavior of single-flawed rock samples under uniaxial compression tests. Numerical simulation results show that the flaw width b has significant effects on the crack geometrical parameters (crack initiation location d and crack initiation angle θ). The values of θ and d significantly decrease with the increase of flaw width when b < 1.0 mm and their values tend to be stable with the further increase of flaw widths. It is also found that the mechanical properties (uniaxial compressive strength UCS and deformation modulus Es) of flawed rock samples are related to the crack geometrical parameters (θ and d) and the effects of flaw width on the values of UCS and Es of single-flawed rock specimens is significant when b < 1.0 mm for lower crack inclination angle (α < 60°).