The influence of loading conditions on fracture initiation, propagation, and interaction in rocks with veins: Results from a comparative Discrete Element Method study

Abstract

We present the results of a comparative study of loading conditions on the interactions between extension fractures and veins. We model the fracture behavior of brittle discrete element materials each containing a tabular vein body of variable orientation and strength in two different loading conditions. The first is uniaxial tension, applied with servo-controlled sidewalls. The second is a boudinage boundary condition in which a tensile triaxial stress state is induced in the brittle model volume by quasi-viscous extensional deformation in the adjacent layers. Most of the fracture- vein interactions observed in uniaxial tension also exists in boudinage boundary conditions. However, the importance of each interaction mechanism for a given configuration of relative strength and misorientation of the vein may differ according to the loading mechanism. Nucleation and internal deflection is under both boundary conditions the dominating fracture-vein interaction style in weak veins. In uniaxial tension models, strong veins tend to alter the fracture path by external deflection, while under boudinage loading these veins are more likely overcome by the fracture step over mechanism. Dynamic bifurcation of fractures was observed in uniaxial tension models but never for boudinage boundary conditions. This is because the acceleration of fracture tips in these conditions is suppressed by interaction with distributed fractures as well as viscous damping by the neighboring layers.