Empirical relations between size and strength have found ample treatment in the literature, not so the effect of size on the underlying mechanism. This paper examines size effect on fracture mechanism in unconfined and triaxial tests between intact specimens of various sizes and on jointed specimens with various spacings. Statistical size effect and volume dependent strain energy effect can be distinguished and are shown to differently affect crack propagation and failure mechanism.
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Baecher et al. (1981) studied this question.
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