Energy partitioning for a crack under remote shear and compression

The true nature and characteristics of crack growth mechanisms in geologic materials have not been adequately described and are poorly understood. The process by which deformation energy is converted to slipping and growing cracks under compressive stresses is complex and difficult to measure. A hybrid technique employing moiré interferometry as an experimental boundary condition to a finite element method (FEM) was employed for through-cracked polycarbonate plates under remote shear and compression. Cohesive end zone and dislocation slip models are used to approximate experimentally observed displacement characteristics. Shear-driven linear elastic fracture mechanics displacement predictions are shown to be inadequate for initial displacement progression. Moiré displacement fields of relative crack face slip reveal a near tip cohesive zone. The pre-slip moiré-FEM stress fields reveal that the maximum crack tip tensile stress occurs at approximately 45 degrees and further infers cohesive zone presence. A J integral formulation uses moiré displacement data and accounts for stored energy along the crack before and after shear driven crack face slip. These energy-partitioning results track the transfer of stored energy along the crack face to the crack tip until the entire crack is actively slipping. These laboratory-scale experiments capture basic mechanical behavior and simulate thousands of years of large-scale geologic feature displacement history in just a few hours.