Fracture mechanisms in soft rock: Identification and quantification of evolving displacement discontinuities by extended digital image correlation
Deformation of rocks at shallow depths (i.e., at low confining pressures) is primarily driven by the evolution of new fractures or the propagation and coalescence of pre-existing ones. In this paper, fracture evolution from inclined flaws (cuts) in a soft rock deformed under plane-strain uniaxial compression is analyzed using high-resolution digital photographs and Digital Image Correlation (DIC).