Compression-induced crack initiation and growth in flawed rocks: A review

The purpose of this review is to discuss the development and the contribution of the experiments and numerical simulations in compression-induced failure characteristics of flawed rock specimens. Investigation is essential to understand the fundamental failures occurring in a rock bridge, for assessing anticipated and actual performances of the structures built on or in rock masses. The review begins by representing and discussing compression-induced crack initiation and growth in flawed rocks and explaining the significance of studying these issues in Section 1. The crack initiation and growth behaviors in flawed rocks under uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial compressions are described in depth in Section 2 where it is expected to distinguish 2-D crack growth from 3-D crack growth. After that, the failure characteristics of flawed rock specimens due to temperature treatments and hydraulic pressure are systematically reviewed. Numerical studies of the compression-induced failure characteristics of flawed rock specimens based on different numerical theories and numerical models are comprehensively evaluated in Section 3. In Section 4, the new findings obtained recently from experimental and numerical studies are drawn. Finally, some aspects of prospective research and a brief summary are presented in Sections 5 and 6.