This work aims to reveal the influence of rock bridge length on fracture and energy evolution of granite containing a circular hole and two fissures exposed to uniaxial increasing-amplitude decreasing-frequency (UIADF) cyclic loads. The rock bridge length was designed to be 0, 5, 10, and 15 mm between the hole and fissure. The testing results show that rock strength, deformation, lifetime, energy dissipation, and failure morphology are all influenced by rock bridge length. Increasing rock bridge length leads to the increase of rock volumetric deformation, stiffness, and dissipated energy. The rock stiffness decreases with the increase of loading cycle, and its decreasing rate becomes faster. The dissipated energy increases with decrease of loading frequency, and an exponential relation is revealed between them, a damage evolution model that can describe a fast increase of accumulative damage is proposed based on the dissipated energy. Three failure modes of single tensile coalescence, single shear coalescence, and double shear coalescence were revealed from failure morphology. It is suggested that much more energy needs to be consumed to form a double shear coalescence pattern; the interaction between the hole and fissure is the weakest for a sample having a high bridge length.
