DefinePK

Abstract

Understanding Rock Fracture mechanism is essential in civil engineering applications. Failure due to shear strength is considered the main cause for rock failure. This study was conducted to evaluate shear strength of rock (Sandstone) specimens with different notch inclinations (10º, 20º, 30º, 35º and 40º) under pure shear testing. Finite Element simulations were used to determine stresses in tested Sandstone specimens with different notch angles. Results of the simulations were utilized in Mohr envelope form of power law (n-type) to investigate shear failure mechanism in rock and prediction of crack propagation pattern. It was found that the stress state in term of t-s curve from Finite Element simulation results and the Mohr-type envelope could explain the failure mechanism in Sandstone and the crack propagation pattern in tested specimens with relation to different notches inclination degrees. Furthermore, it was found that the tensile strength of Sandstone was needed to have a better control to the right end of the Mohr-type envelopes, which could be used to analyze and understand more about the mechanism of the steady and curving crack propagation of the sandstone specimen with big d/H ration.