Determination of Mode I Fracture Toughness of Rocks Using Wedge Splitting Test

Abstract

Received: December 13, 2019 Revised: December 23, 2019 Accepted: December 23, 2019 In the applications of rock mechanics or rock engineering including drill and blast, drilling and mechanical excavation, the fracture toughness is an important factor. Several methods have been proposed to measure the fracture toughness of rocks. In this study, wedge splitting test specimen which is prepared with ease and tested under compression loading was used to obtain mode I fracture toughness of rocks. The equation of stress intensity factor through numerical analysis is proposed from the stress state of crack tip considering both vertical and horizontal loads due to the vertical load acting on the wedge. The validity of the wedge splitting test method was confirmed by comparing the mode I fracture toughness values obtained by the GD and SENB test specimens.