Shear rupture under constant normal stiffness boundary conditions

• Shear rupture under constant normal stiffness (CNS) boundary condition investigated.
• Fracturing processes leading to shear rupture zone creation are presented.
• Shear rupture zone creation occurs before maximum peak shear strength.
• Shear rupture zone creation understanding under CNS boundary conditions is improved.

A grain based Distinct Element Method and its embedded Grain Based Method are used to simulate the fracturing processes leading to shear rupture zone creation in a calibrated massive (non-jointed) brittle rock specimen deformed in direct shear under constant normal stiffness boundary conditions. Under these boundary conditions, shear rupture zone creation relative to the shear stress versus applied horizontal displacement (load–displacement) curve occurs pre-peak, before the maximum peak shear strength is reached. This is found to be the result of a normal stress feedback process caused by the imposed shear displacement which couples increases in normal stress, due to rupture zone dilation, with shear stress, producing a complex normal-shear stress-path that reaches and then follows the rock's yield (strength) envelope. While the yield envelope is followed, the shear strength increases further and shear stress oscillations (repeated stress drops followed by re-strengthening periods) in the load–displacement curves occur due to fracture creation as the rupture zone geometry smoothens. Once the maximum peak strength is reached (after a series of shear stress oscillations) the largest stress drops occur as the ultimate or residual shear strength is approached. The simulation results provide insight into the fracturing process during rupture zone creation and improve the understanding of the shear stress versus applied horizontal displacement response, as well as the stick-slip behaviour of shear rupture zones that are being created under constant normal stiffness boundary conditions.