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Brittle deformation

*See chapter 6 of the Book Earth Structure

http://www.uib.no/people/nglhe/Brittle%20deformation%2002.swf

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Brittle deformation-definition

*Brittle deformation is nonrecoverable (the deformation

remains when the stress is removed).
-Brittle deformation= breaking, fracture.
-This is a permanent change in solid material due to the
growth of fracture and/or sliding on fracture surfaces.
At microscopic scale, brittle deformation corresponds to the
breaking of bonds between atoms or moleculs
*Brittle deformation mechanisms
Located in the first 10-15km of the crust
At the grain scale:
-Granular flow
-Cataclasis
-Frictionnal sliding

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What is a fracture?

Fault

Relative movement parallel to the fracture surface

Fissure

Opening or aperture
Movement normal to the fracture surface

Joints

Fracture without visible offset

Parallel or perpendicular to the fracture offset

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Experimental apparatus

Used to explore the tensile crack

development

Used to explore shear fracture

development

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K1 = tY(c)1/2

Tensile cracking (mode I)

K1 is stress intensity factor
t is far-field tensile stress
Y is geometry of crack (dimensionless)
c is half the length of the crack

*Favoured by low confining pressure

*Develop perpendicular to the strain axis

and parallel to the

*Can be formed by fluid overpressure

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r

Tensile cracking (mode I)

Cr

*Strength paradox: remote stress gets concentrated at the side of

flaws inside the material.

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Tensile cracking (mode I)

C = a/c + 1

C: amount of stress concentration (parameter without dimension)

a: long axis of the ellipse
c: short axis of the ellipse

*The larger axial ratio is, the greater the stress concentration
will be.
*Cracks or discontinuities (Griffith cracks) with high axial ratio
will propagate first under stress.

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Tensile cracking (mode I)

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Shear fracture (Fault)

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Shear fractures (mode II and mode III)

* Mode II fracture develop at 20 to 30 to the

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Shear fractures (mode II and mode III)

Experimentally determined by triaxial compression test.

In triaxial stress, the surrounding pressure n is added. If n is
uniform (say the pressure of a gas or liquid), then
the normal stress = 1 - n
is referred to as differential stress or deviatoric stress

n=2=3

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Shear fractures (mode II and mode III)

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Failure criteria

*Anderson theory of failure

-Related to Mode I and II fractures

-consequences:
relation between the geometry of fault and the associated stress
conditions. This is an angular relationship between shear fractures and
principal stress axis.

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Failure criteria

*Coulombs failure criterion

=C

tn g

s=criticalshearstressforfailure
tooccur
C=criticalshearstressrequiredto
initiateslipalongaplaneoriented
sothatthenormalstressthatacts
onthatplaneiszero(cohesion)
n=normalstressacrossshear
zoneatinstantoffailure

=angleofinternalfriction
s = C + ntg

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Failure criteria

Failure envelope separates fields of stable and unstable

stress state
s

s
n

no failure
(stable)

s
n

Failure
(brittle failure)

impossible
(unstable)

Failure envelops=straight lines which slope is =tg and C

is the intercept with the vertical axis
When (differential stress) is great enough to reach
the failure envelops, the failure occurs.

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Failure criteria

Constructing failure envelopes

-Experimentally determined by triaxial compression test with variable
confining pressure by increasing the differential stress.
-the shape of failure envelopes is dependant of the type of rocks

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Failure criteria

-further work by Otto Mohr on shear-fracture criteria showed that

the straight line for Coulomb criterion is valid only for limited range
of confining pressures
at lower confining pressures: curves to steeper slope
at higher confining pressures: curves to shallower slope

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Failure criteria

For high confining pressures: plastic deformation begins

cannot have failure envelopeimplies brittle
can approximate yield envelopesample yields plastically
two parallel lines that parallel n axis.
known as Von Mises criterion which is independent of differential stress.

s
n

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Failure criteria

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Brittle deformation

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Failure criteria

*Griffiths failure criterion

-based on the assertion that a rock is never homogeneous.

In other words, rocks display always defects as pore or lattice

discontinuity.

s2 = 4T0n-4(T0)2=0
T0: Uniaxial tensile strength of the rock
-Micro-discontinuities oriented parallel to the direction of
maximum shear stress will grow faster than randomly oriented
fractures.

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Failure criteria

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Failure criteria

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Failure criteria

*Frictional sliding criterion

Because of friction, certain critical shear stress is
required before sliding initiates on preexisting fracture
s=0.85n

s=50MPa+0.6n

Experimental data show

that failure criterion for
frictional sliding is
largely independent of
rock type
s / n = constant
Byerlees law

forn<200MPa:s=0.85n
for200MPa<n<2000MPa:s=50MPa+0.6n

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Role of fluids in fracturing

What happens when fluid are present
in the pores of a rock ?
Hydrostatic pressure: Pf= .g.h
: Density of water

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Tensile field

Role of fluids in fracturing

Compressive field

s = C + (n-pf)tg
-nn-pf, called effective pressure

-Increase in pore pressure moves the Mohr circle to the left.

-When the circle reaches the envelop failure, the fracture occurs
-Fluid pressure is equal in all the directions. The radius of Mohr Circle does
not change.