Testing study of subcritical crack growth rate and fracture toughness in different rocks

Subcritical crack growth of double torsion specimens made of ore, 1herzolite, marble and granite was studied using Instron1342 type electro hydraulic servo test machine. The relations of the mode-I stress intensity factor K1 versus the subcritical crack growth velocity v and the fracture toughness KIC were obtained by the double torsion constant displacement load relaxation method. The behavior of subcritical crack growth was analyzed for different rocks. The results show that 1gKI—1gv relations of four kinds of rocks measured by this method accord with linear rule, i.e. the relations between subcritical crack growth velocity and stress intensity factor have a power law, which is in good agreement with CHARLES theory. 1gKI—1gv curves move to top left corner with the decrease of the elastic modulus, which implies that the subcritical crack growth velocity speeds up. The maximum subcritical crack growth velocity exhibits negative exponential increase, and mode-I fracture toughness 1gKIC decreases with the decrease of elastic modulus. The testing results provide a basis for time-dependence of rock engineering stability.