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This thesis work describes a new experimental method for the determination of Mode II (shear) fracture toughness, KIIC of rock and compares the outcome to results from Mode I (tensile) fracture toughness, KIC, testing using the International Society of Rock Mechanics Chevron-Bend method.Critical Mode I fracture growth at ambient conditions was studied by carrying out a series of experiments on a sandstone at different loading rates. The mechanical and microstructural data show that time- and loading rate dependent crack growth occurs in the test material at constant energy requirement.The newly developed set-up for determination of the Mode II fracture toughness is called the Punch-Through Shear test. Notches were drilled to the end surfaces of core samples. An axial load punches down the central cylinder introducing a shear load in the remaining rock bridge. To the mantle of the cores a confining pressure may be applied. The application of confining pressure favours the growth of Mode II fractures as large pressures suppress the growth of tensile cracks.Variation of geometrical parameters leads to an optimisation of the PTS- geometry. Increase of normal load on the shear zone increases KIIC bi-linear. High slope is observed at low confining pressures; at pressures above 30 MPa low slope increase is evident. The maximum confining pressure applied is 70 MPa. The evolution of fracturing and its change with confining pressure is described.The existence of Mode II fracture in rock is a matter of debate in the literature. Comparison of the results from Mode I and Mode II testing, mainly regarding the resulting fracture pattern, and correlation analysis of KIC and KIIC to physico-mechanical parameters emphasised the differences between the response of rock to Mode I and Mode II loading. On the microscale, neither the fractures resulting from Mode I the Mode II loading are pure mode fractures. On macroscopic scale, Mode I and Mode II do exist.
Information on structural features of a fracture network at early stages of Enhanced Geothermal System development is mostly restricted to borehole images and, if available, outcrop data. However, using this information to image discontinuities in deep reservoirs is difficult. Wellbore failure data provides only some information on components of the in situ stress state and its heterogeneity. Our working hypothesis is that slip on natural fractures primarily controls these stress heterogeneities. Based on this, we introduce stress-based tomography in a Bayesian framework to characterize the fracture network and its heterogeneity in potential Enhanced Geothermal System reservoirs. In this procedure, first a random initial discrete fracture network (DFN) realization is generated based on prior information about the network. The observations needed to calibrate the DFN are based on local variations of the orientation and magnitude of at least one principal stress component along boreholes. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo sequence is employed to update the DFN iteratively by a fracture translation within the domain. The Markov sequence compares the simulated stress profile with the observed stress profiles in the borehole, evaluates each iteration with Metropolis-Hastings acceptance criteria, and stores acceptable DFN realizations in an ensemble. Finally, this obtained ensemble is used to visualize the potential occurrence of fractures in a probability map, indicating possible fracture locations and lengths. We test this methodology to reconstruct simple synthetic and more complex outcrop-based fracture networks and successfully image the significant fractures in the domain.