TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mardoukhi, Ahmad
A1  - Mardoukhi, Yousof
A1  - Hokka, Mikko
A1  - Kuokkala, Veli-Tapani
T1  - Effects of strain rate and surface cracks on the mechanical behaviour of Balmoral Red granite
JF  - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A : Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
N2  - This work presents a systematic study on the effects of strain rate and surface cracks on the mechanical properties and behaviour of Balmoral Red granite. The tensile behaviour of the rock was studied at low and high strain rates using Brazilian disc samples. Heat shocks were used to produce samples with different amounts of surface cracks. The surface crack patterns were analysed using optical microscopy, and the complexity of the patterns was quantified by calculating the fractal dimensions of the patterns. The strength of the rock clearly drops as a function of increasing fractal dimensions in the studied strain rate range. However, the dynamic strength of the rock drops significantly faster than the quasi-static strength, and, because of this, also the strain rate sensitivity of the rock decreases with increasing fractal dimensions. This can be explained by the fracture behaviour and fragmentation during the dynamic loading, which is more strongly affected by the heat shock than the fragmentation at low strain rates.
KW  - split Hopkinson pressure bar
KW  - rock
KW  - granite
KW  - dynamic loading
KW  - fractal dimension
KW  - surface cracks
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2016.0179
SN  - 1364-503X
SN  - 1471-2962
VL  - 375
IS  - 2085
PB  - Royal Society
CY  - London
ER  -