Rock fracture under anti-plane shear (Mode Ⅲ) loading

Anti-plane punch-through shear test and anti-planefour-point bending test are used to study the crack initiation and propagation under anti-plane shear (Mode Ⅲ) loading. The tensile and shear stresses at the crack tip are calculated by finite element method. The results show that under Mode Ⅲ loading the maximum principal stress σ1 at crack tip is smaller or a little larger than the maximum shear stress τmax. Since the tensile strength of brittle rock is much lower than its shear strength, σ1 is easy to reach its critical value before τmax reaches its critical value and thus results in Mode I fracture. The fracture trajectory is helicoid and the normal direction of tangential plane with the fractured helicoid is along the predicted direction of the maximum principal stress at the notch tip. It is further proved that Mode Ⅰ instead of Mode Ⅲ fracture occurs in brittle rock under Mode Ⅲ loading. The fracture mode depending on the fracture mechanism must be distinguished from the loading form.