Investigation on Crack Coalescence Behaviors for Granite Containing Two Flaws Induced by Cyclic Freeze-Thaw and Uniaxial Deformation in Beizhan Iron Mining, Xinjing, China

Table 3

Crack propagation and coalescence for the samples with an inclination flaw of 50°.

Failure morphology
Crack coalescence patterns	(i) Tensile cracks were initiated from the right tip of the inclined flaw, anticrack propagation to the right tip of horizontal crack; (ii) Tensile crack propagation from the middle of the horizontal flaw to the left tip of the tip of the inclined flaw; (iii) Shear cracks were observed and induced failure; (iv) Flaw aperture thickness both decreases for the two flaws; (v) Many cracks develop at the rock bridge segment	(i) Tensile cracks were initiated from the left tip of the inclined flaw, and propagation to the middle of horizontal crack; (ii) Shear crack was initiated from the middle of the inclined crack and induced failure; (iii) No cracks between the right tip of the inclined flaw and horizontal flaw; (iv) Number of cracks at the rock bridge decreases	(i) Failure only by tensile cracks; (ii) Tensile crack from the right tip of the inclined flaw and propagation to the right tip of horizontal crack; (iii) Tensile crack propagation from the left tip of the inclined flaw to the middle of the horizontal flaw; (iv) No decrease in flaw aperture thickness; (v) Crack at the rock bridge decreases	(i) Tensile cracks were initiated from the left tip of the inclined flaw and propagation to the middle of horizontal crack, anticrack propagation to the right tip of inclined crack; (ii) Number of cracks at the rock bridge decreases sharply and it got to the minimum