IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v403y2000i6771d10.1038_35001550.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explanation for fracture spacing in layered materials

Author

Listed:
  • T. Bai

    (Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences)

  • D. D. Pollard

    (Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences)

  • H. Gao

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

The spacing of opening-mode fractures in layered materials—such as certain sedimentary rocks and laminated engineering materials—is often proportional to the thickness of the fractured layer1,2,3,4. Experimental studies of this phenomenon1,5 show that the spacing initially decreases as extensional strain increases in the direction perpendicular to the fractures. But at a certain ratio of spacing to layer thickness, no new fractures form and the additional strain is accommodated by further opening of existing fractures: the spacing then simply scales with layer thickness, which is called fracture saturation5,6. This is in marked contrast to existing theories of fracture, such as the stress-transfer theory7,8, which predict that spacing should decrease with increasing strain ad infinitum. Recently9,10, two of us (T.B. and D.D.P.) have used a combination of numerical simulations and laboratory experiments to show that, with increasing applied stress, the normal stress acting between such fractures undergoes a transition from tensile to compressive, suggesting a cause for fracture saturation. Here we investigate the full stress distribution between such fractures, from which we derive an intuitive physical model of the process of fracture saturation. Such a model should find wide applicability, from geosciences11,12,13,14 to engineering1,2,6,15,16.

Suggested Citation

  • T. Bai & D. D. Pollard & H. Gao, 2000. "Explanation for fracture spacing in layered materials," Nature, Nature, vol. 403(6771), pages 753-756, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:403:y:2000:i:6771:d:10.1038_35001550
    DOI: 10.1038/35001550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/35001550
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/35001550?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qian Dang & Haiping Lin & Zhenglong Fan & Lu Ma & Qi Shao & Yujin Ji & Fangfang Zheng & Shize Geng & Shi-Ze Yang & Ningning Kong & Wenxiang Zhu & Youyong Li & Fan Liao & Xiaoqing Huang & Mingwang Shao, 2021. "Iridium metallene oxide for acidic oxygen evolution catalysis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Yong Yuan & Changtai Zhou & Zhihe Wang & Jifang Du, 2018. "Joint Elasticity Effect on the Failure Behaviours of Rock Masses using a Discrete Element Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Xiaoyan Luo & Guoyan Zhao & Peng Xiao & Wengang Zhao, 2022. "Fracture Process and Failure Mode of Brazilian Discs with Cracks of Different Angles: A Numerical Study," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(24), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Yongliang Wang & Nana Liu, 2022. "Dynamic Propagation and Shear Stress Disturbance of Multiple Hydraulic Fractures: Numerical Cases Study via Multi-Well Hydrofracturing Model with Varying Adjacent Spacings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-17, June.
    5. Baolin Xiong & Jia Sun & Yunmeng Zhao & Zhuangzhuang Wang & Zhiyuan Wang & Bo Chen, 2023. "Quantitative Identification of Cracks in Jointed Layered Rock Specimens under Uniaxial Compression," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:403:y:2000:i:6771:d:10.1038_35001550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.