Experimental and numerical investigation on the dynamic shear failure mechanism of sandstone using short beam compression specimen

In this study, a novel testing method is proposed to characterize the dynamic shear property and failure mechanism of rocks by introducing the short beam compression (SBC) specimen into the split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) system. Firstly, the stress distribution of SBC specimen is comprehensively analyzed by finite element method (FEM), and the results show that the optimal notch separation ratio of SBC specimen is C/H = 0.2 to achieve successful dynamic simple-shear tests. Then, dynamic shear tests are conducted on sandstone using the SBC-SHPB method. Via careful pulse shaping technique, the dynamic force balance is guaranteed for SBC specimens, and the testing results show that the dynamic shear strength of sandstone is significantly rate-dependent. Combining the results of dynamic compression and tension tests, the failure envelopes of sandstone under different loading rates are obtained in the principle stress plane. It is found that the failure envelope of sandstone constantly expands outwards with increasing loading rate. Moreover, the energy partition of SBC specimen is quantified by virtue of high-speed digital image correlation (DIC) technique. The results show that the kinetic energy portion is non-negligible, and the shear fracture energy increases with increasing loading rate. In addition, the microscopic shear cracking mechanism of SBC specimen is analyzed by the thin section observation: the intra-granular (TG) fracture of minerals dominates the dynamic shear failure of sandstone, and the portion of TG fracture increases with increasing loading rate. This study provides a convenient and reliable method to investigate the dynamic shear property and failure mechanism of rocks. (C) 2023 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).