Abstract
In the field of rock engineering, the coupled effects of confining pressure and crack filling material on rock mechanical properties have not received widespread attention. In this study, the central cracked Brazilian disk specimen was used to investigate the fracture properties of sandstone in compression-shear loading mode in a confining pressure and crack-filling environments. Variations in peak load and fracture toughness were quantitatively evaluated for different confining pressures and fillings, accompanied by the establishment of quantitative relationships related to fracture toughness. The trend of linear increase in effective fracture toughness versus confining pressure arises primarily from the contribution of confining pressure. The filling material weakens the fracture toughness of the rock to a certain extent, which is attributed to the accumulation of energy during the failure of the sandstone and the reduction of the stress concentration at the crack tip. The crack propagation trajectory mainly exhibits the characteristics of a stretched wing crack, but shows a transition trend towards a shear crack to a certain extent.
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