Failure of granite under compression

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Abstract

Strength data for Westerly granite under triaxial compression up to a confining pressure of 800 MN/m2 (8 kbar) reveal a quadratic relationship between maximum stress and confining pressure. Neither the Coulomb nor the Griffith failure criteria are adequate for representing these data.

A failure model based on the difference of elastic constants of the constituent minerals and a mechanism of structural instability yields the correct relation between maximum stress and confining pressure. The model can also explain some typical experimental observations, in particular the formation of a shear fault in the presence of confining pressure.

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