A study of brittle rock fracture in laboratory compression experiments

Laboratory test procedures were developed to control brittle rock failure in uniaxial and multiaxial compression experiments using a stiff testing machine. Complete stress-strain curves so obtained revealed two distinct classes of post-failure behavior in uniaxial compression. ‘Brittle-ductile’ transitional behavior was established for Tennessee marble between zero and 7000 psi confining pressure. Post-failure mechanisms in brittle rocks are discussed in detail.