An Expanded Wing Crack Model for Fracture and Mechanical Behavior of Sandstone Under Triaxial Compression

Description

Esraa Alomari, Kam Ng, and Lokendra Khatri build a new model for when sandstone breaks under squeeze from all sides, in work from twenty twenty-four. Brittle rock often holds old flaws that sprout thin wing cracks under load. Past wing crack models track one crack but can miss how near cracks push on each other. A better model should forecast the load at which the rock fails. Lab data on sandstone can then test that forecast.

The new model first finds a key crack length where growth turns unstable. It adds stress from crack birth and from crack contact at the tip. Setting that total equal to the rock toughness gives the failure load. Forecasts are checked against lab tests on Wyoming sandstone and past published data. The new model beats older failure rules on two error scores. That edge suggests crack contact matters a lot for rock strength.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC11643570