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Crack coalescence morphology in rock-like material under compression

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Abstract

This paper uses peridynamic simulations to determine the extent of coalescing damage and identify the underlying causes. The basic crack types and crack coalescence patterns in specimens with a flaw pair under uniaxial compression are systematically investigated. Various crack types including horsetail cracks, anti-wing cracks, and tensile wing cracks are successfully observed and the coalescence sequences are identified. By varying angles, six crack coalescence categories with respect to the overlapping ratios provide insightful information of different crack growths and indicate various cracking modes underlying various coalescence patterns. The arrangement of the flaw pair strongly influences the crack initiation position and trajectories, allowing for different coalescence morphologies. Coalescence formed by two internal tensile wing cracks, or transfixion, shows unbroken crack segments with a further loading, along with growing shear cracks until failure. In contrast, after the coalescence is formed through two horsetail cracks, the interior of the rhombic shape gets deformed with further loading. The peridynamic code adopted in this research can provide realistic simulation results and help researchers to conduct expanded tests as well as to enhance understanding the fracture of rock-like material.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (No. NRF-2015R1A2A1A01006214). This work is also supported by a grant from a Construction Technology Research Project (Development of impact/blast resistant HPFRCC and evaluation technique thereof, 13SCIPS02) funded by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, and by U-City Master and Doctor Course Grant Program of Korea Minister of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea

    Jooeun Lee & Jung-Wuk Hong

  2. Department of Naval Architecture, Kunsan National University, Gunsan, Jeonbuk, 573-701, South Korea

    Youn Doh Ha

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  1. Jooeun Lee
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  2. Youn Doh Ha
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Correspondence to Jung-Wuk Hong.

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Lee, J., Ha, Y.D. & Hong, JW. Crack coalescence morphology in rock-like material under compression. Int J Fract 203, 211–236 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-016-0138-2

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