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Various brittle geological structures form from the tip of preexisting joints. Experiments have been carried out to investigate their mechanical origin and to find out whether a planar defect can propagate in its ownplane under mode II geometrical conditions (displacement parallel to the defect plane and perpendicular to the edge) as supposed by the classical rupture mechanics model, and in particular, whether mode II can be an elementary fracture mechanism, which is not clear in the model and has not been experimentally demonstrated. A biaxial loading device (plane strain) allowed direct observation of fracture propagation from an angled slot in plates of Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA, Altuglas) and sandstone (low and high porosity). Under uniaxial load, mode I propagation of the classical branch fracture occurred in both materials, but its development was inhibited under biaxial loading (low σ 3 /σ 1 ratio). At higher stress/strain levels, shear zones (clearly distinguishable from the branch fracture) developed from the slot tip. In PMMA they consisted of the prograding development of en echelon shallow microcracks formed in mode I and more or less associated with plastic deformation. In sandstone a narrow shear zone propagated in the prolongation of the defect (slowly in the high‐porosity samples and abruptly in the low‐porosity ones) accompanied by conjugate shear fractures. The deformation mechanism was cataclasis, implying tensile (mode I) microfractures. These experiments suggest that mode II cannot exist as an elementary (primary) fracture mechanism but can only be a macroscopic fracture phenomenon which must necessarily involve tensile (mode I) microcrack formation. The latter is linked to stress concentrations in the prolongation of the existing joint. As such mode II initiated shear zones have not been generated in glass, a high density of small defects which can be mobilized under shear stress would seem essential. These ideas can be used to interpret some types of natural faults.
Petit et al. (Thu,) studied this question.