Abstract
A review of studies of subcritical crack growth in rock is presented. First, theoretical background of subcritical crack growth is presented. It has been considered that the main mechanism of subcritical crack growth in silicate materials is stress corrosion under low homologous temperature and pressure. Next, theoretical background of stress corrosion is presented. Especially, the theoretical relation between the crack velocity and the stress intensity factor is described. Then, progress of the study of subcritical crack growth in silicate materials is presented by reviewing previous studies for glass, quartz, and silicate rocks. It has been clarified that the reactive species of stress corrosion is water and hydroxyl ion. For anisotropic rock, the crack velocity was dependent on the propagation direction and opening direction even at the same stress intensity factor.
Finally, recent results of subcritical crack growth in rock are presented. It was clarified that the relation between the crack velocity and the stress intensity factor was decided by the crack opening direction. The crack velocity was higher when the temperature and the humidity were higher. It was shown that the activation energy became smaller when the crack path was smooth from the observation of the crack path.
