Abstract
We investigated experimentally the effect of water on the velocity of crack propagation in an andesite and a basalt. The relation between the stress intensity factor K I at the crack tip and the crack velocity V was measured using the double torsion method. Experiments were conducted with the rock specimens either water-saturated or air-dry at laboratory humidity. Stress-dependent, slow crack growth was observed in both rocks used. The velocity of crack growth in water-saturated rocks was shown to be 2 ~ 3 orders of magnitude greater than in the room-dry ones. Our experimental results agree well with a general equation for crack velocity developed by Wiederhorn (1969). The present results suggest that stress-corrosion cracking should be an important process for the mechanism of dilatancy, creep and other characteristic behavior in the polycrystalline silicate rocks.
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