Experimental and numerical study of failure characteristics of brittle rocks with single internal 3D open-type flaw

Open flaws without any filling material are common fracture structures in real rock. To study the failure characteristics of this fracture structure, small-scale rock-like samples with single internal 3D open flaws are prepared, and uniaxial compression tests are conducted. Digital image correlation (for surface strain and failures) and acoustic emission (for internal microfracture behaviors) monitoring technologies are also employed to analyze the flaws. The test results are verified through numerical simulations. Different inclination angles of the internal preset flaws are found to have little influence on the strength of the samples, and the surface and internal secondary failures of the samples exhibit very different development processes and distributions. The particle displacement trend method is applied to explain the initiation mechanism of secondary cracks, but the corresponding analyses are only reasonable if particle information along the y-axis is considered. Therefore, the particle information in the y-axis is incorporated by defining new 2D sections (with y-axis) or partial 3D models. Based on these research methods, the initiation mechanism of secondary cracks is reasonably explained, and the influence of the preset flaw thickness on the particle displacement trend fields and secondary failures in surrounding rocks can be discussed. Finally, the simulation results prove that the Mode II and III failures are usually coupled, and direct Mode III failures (displacement of two parts of rock parallel to each other and in opposite directions) only occur in the front and rear surrounding rocks of the preset flaw.