Mixed-mode fracture criteria investigation in a rock

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Ranji, Ahmad Rahbar

Affiliations: Department of Ocean Engineering, AmirKabir University of Technology, Hafez Avenue, Tehran, 15914, Iran. E-mail: rahbar@aut.ac.ir; Tel.: +98-21-64543114; Fax: +98-21-66412495

Abstract: Cracks in mixed mode condition are very common due to the stochastic nature of cracks and loadings. There are a number of criteria proposed for determination of the critical load and crack kinking angle in mixed-mode conditions. A detailed investigation of the widely accepted crack propagation criteria is presented and compared with experimental results available in the literature. It is shown that despite many criticisms and corrections, maximum tangential stress criterion still has a very good agreement with experiment and can be used to predict critical load. The deviations between different methods in predicting kinking angle are not significant, irrespective of dominant mode of crack.

Keywords: Mixed-mode fracture, maximum tangential stress, maximum energy release rate, minimum strain density

DOI: 10.3233/SFC-160192

Journal: Strength, Fracture and Complexity, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 265-274, 2015