Microscopic damage evolution of anisotropic rocks under indirect tensile conditions: Insights from acoustic emission and digital image correlation techniques

The anisotropy induced by rock bedding structures is usually manifested in the mechanical behaviors and failure modes of rocks. Brazilian tests are conducted for seven groups of shale specimens featuring different bedding angles. Acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) technologies are used to monitor the in-situ failure of the specimens. Furthermore, the crack morphology of damaged samples is observed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results reveal the structural dependence on the tensile mechanical behavior of shales. The shale disk exhibits compression in the early stage of the experiment with varying locations and durations. The location of the compression area moves downward and gradually disappears when the bedding angle increases. The macroscopic failure is well characterized by AE event location results, and the dominant frequency distribution is related to the bedding angle. The b-value is found to be stress-dependent. The crack turning angle between layers and the number of cracks crossing the bedding both increase with the bedding angle, indicating competition between crack propagations. SEM results revealed that the failure modes of the samples can be classified into three types: tensile failure along beddings with shear failure of the matrix, ladder shear failure along beddings with tensile failure of the matrix, and shear failure along multiple beddings with tensile failure of the matrix.

Automated summary

The anisotropy induced by rock bedding structures affects the mechanical behaviors and failure modes of rocks, as shown by Brazilian tests on shale specimens with different bedding angles. Acoustic emission and digital image correlation technologies were used to monitor in-situ failure, while scanning electron microscopy was used to observe crack morphology. The results revealed the structural dependence of shale's tensile mechanical behavior, with compression occurring in the early stage of the experiment and the location of the compression area moving downward and disappearing as the bedding angle increased. The dominant frequency distribution and b-value were found to be related to the bedding angle, and crack turning angle and number increased with the bedding angle, indicating competition between crack propagations. SEM results classified the failure modes into three types.