A Review of the Influence of Microscopic Characteristics on the Progressively Brittle Failure of Foliated Rocks Subjected to Compression Loading

The progressively brittle failure of foliated rocks involving the initiation, propagation, and aggregation modes is closely related to the microscopic characteristics of these rocks. For this particular type of rock, the phyllosilicate minerals and microcracks in the microstructure have a certain preferred orientation, and the minerals display typical spatial arrangement features. Moreover, phyllosilicate minerals exhibit deformation behaviors such as dislocation slip, plastic kinking, and fracture failure during the compression process, which play an important role in the evolution of rock cracks. In addition, directional microcracks are primarily distributed at the edge of phyllosilicate minerals, and these significantly impact the accumulation of rock damage. The oriented phyllosilicate minerals and the microcracks jointly constitute the weak layer of the foliated rock. When loaded with the weak layer in different directions, the rock will show anisotropy at the micro and macro levels. Based on previous studies, this paper summarizes and analyzes the microscopic mechanism and crack evolution law of foliated rock, aiming to expand the understanding of the correlation of the microscopic characteristics with the macro- and mesomechanical behavior of this kind of anisotropic rock, which may significantly lead to further studies on rock anisotropy.