Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-022-02272-w
ORIGINAL PAPER
Study on crack growth behaviour in rocks having
pre‑existing narrow flaws under biaxial compression
G. Sivakumar · V. B. Maji
Received: 26 May 2022 / Accepted: 4 August 2022 / Published online: 20 August 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Abstract  The analysis of crack growth on a rock
with pre-existing flaws is mostly carried out in open
flaw configurations whereas limited study can be
found for narrow flaw configurations. Unlike open
flaw, narrow flaws are initially open and subsequently
gets closed during loading. It also experiences fric-
tion which needed to be accounted for. Very few
studies are available, to understand the effect of fric-
tion between the flaw surfaces. Additionally, the lat-
eral confinement due to the biaxial stress state would
influence the crack initiation and their subsequent
growth. In the present study, an experimental inves-
tigation is conducted to understand the crack growth
behaviour of narrow flaws under biaxial stress envi-
ronments. A novel biaxial compression test setup is
developed using conventional triaxial cells. The tests
were conducted using gypsum having uniaxial com-
pressive strength of 15.5  MPa and Young’s modu-
lus of 1.037 GPa, with a single flaw. The specimen’s
size effect due to lateral confinement is investigated
by varying the ratio of the specimen width to flaw
length. The change in the behaviour of crack growth
and its crack stresses with respect to initiation and
peak level was studied for different flaw angles. Sub-
sequently, the numerical analysis was performed
using the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM)
G. Sivakumar · V. B. Maji (*)  face. The failure behaviour of rock mass having non-
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute
of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
e-mail: vbmaji@civil.iitm.ac.in
in conjunction with the Cohesive Zone Model (CZM)
systematically validated with laboratory experiments.
Analysis was further extended for higher confine-
ment levels to know the effect of crack patterns and
their stress behaviour. The study observed a change
in critical flaw angle at which sooner initiation hap-
pens when the confinement increases. Hence, there
was a change in crack initiation stress and their cor-
responding peak stress behaviour with respect to flaw
angles when the lateral confinement increases. Also,
the crack pattern was found to be influenced by vari-
ous factors such as the ratio specimen width to flaw
length, frictional coefficient between the flaw surface
and the confinement stress level.
Keywords  Narrow flaw · Biaxial compression ·
Size effect · XFEM · CZM · Frictional coefficient
1 Introduction
Joints/fractures are often visible in the field as a
group where the length or extent of the fractures is
termed persistence and their joint sets generally affect
the stability of the rock mass. In the case of fully per-
sistent fractures, which are continuous throughout
the rock domain, the failure mechanism is based on
the translational failure along the fracture plane sur-
persistent fractures shows the complex interaction
between non-continuous existing fractures and brittle
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propagation through intact rock bridges under differ-
ent loading environment and their interaction (Xin-
mei et al. 2014). Studies on the mechanical behaviour
of fully persistent joints were carried and investigated
by many researchers (Amadei and Goodman 1981;
Jade and Sitharam 2003; Trivedi 2013; Wang and
Huang 2009) whereas, the studies on non-persistent
fracture are limited. The presence of non-persistent
fractures is generally encountered at the side of exca-
vations and the loading state changes from triaxial to
biaxial condition. One important aspect is the stress
state condition of the biaxial compression need con-
sideration. While the underground excavation like
tunnels is generally considered to be a plane strain
condition, in the current scenario the stress state dif-
fers at the boundary of the excavation. The fractures
due to mechanical disturbances of the excavation
process were observed at the boundary of the excava-
tion (Fig.  1). The stress state at the boundaries is at
a state of biaxial loading where σ1 ≥ σ2 and σ3 = 0 at
the excavated direction (Wang et  al. 2020a, b). The
presence of these fractures will produce new cracks
that can lead to catastrophic failure throughout load-
ing. The ultimate failure in rocks largely depends
on the fracture/crack initiation and propagation and
subsequent coalescence to form a macro crack. Over
the past few decades, many researchers attempted to
study the rock fracture behaviour with rock and rock-
like materials by both experimental and numerical
methods subjected under uniaxial and biaxial com-
pression loading. Initial studies were usually carried
by considering pre-existing flaws under uniaxial com-
pression with open and closed/narrow flaws (Reyes
and Einstein 1991; Chen et al. 1995; Wong and Chau
1998; Wong and Einstein 2009; Park and Bobet 2009,
2010; Lee and Jeon 2011; Gonçalves da Silva and
Einstein 2013; Xie et  al. 2016; Sivakumar and Maji
2018, 2021) with different geometry configuration.
For biaxial compression, there are available literature
Fig. 1  Biaxial stress state
observed at the boundary of
the underground excavation
(adapted from Yun 2008)
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based on open flaw configuration (Bobet and Ein-
stein 1998a,b; Mughieda and Karasneh 2006; Bi et al.
2016; Wang et al. 2016; Zhao et al. 2019; Wang et al.
2020a, b) whereas, studies on narrow flaw configura-
tions are limited (Petit and Barquins, 1988; Bobet and
Einstein 1998a,b).
The biaxial study on a single narrow flaw was
experimentally investigated by Petit and Barquins
(1988) on Poly Methyl Meth Acrylate (PMMA) and
Sandstone specimens. The specimen was orientated
to 30° with respect to the applied load, an angle
where the specimen promotes to fail in shearing (Pat-
erson, 1978) and corresponds to the Griffith crack in
compression (Brace and Bombolakis, 1963). They
classified the propagated crack into mode I (tensile)
and mode II (in-plane shear) as per fracture mechan-
ics failure modes. The pure mode I type termed as
branch fracture was observed initially before the
specimen reaches its maximum stress under uni-
axial loading (Fig.  2a). These fractures are followed
by echelon microcracks distributed in the direction
of both coplanar and quasi direction to flaw surface.
With an increase in confinement, branch fracture
growth gets reduced and the development of echelon
cracks is found to be more pronounced forming as a
shear zone, mode II type (Fig.  2b). Also, the devel-
opment of shear zones was observed at the flaw tip
and is distinct for higher confinements. The zone area
appears narrower for sandstone compared to PMMA.
Concurrently, Bobet and Einstein (1998a) performed
an experimental study on gypsum specimens having
two parallel pre-existing flaws. The study was con-
ducted to understand the crack coalescence between
two flaws with both open and narrow conditions and
is subjected to uniaxial and biaxial loading compres-
sion. The specimen with narrow flaws was found to
have partial debonding and slippage between the
flaw surfaces before initiation of a crack. They clas-
sified the observed crack under two types: wing
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Fig. 2  Formation of
branch fracture (bf) and
shear zone (SZ) observed
in PMMA under a uniaxial
and b biaxial compression
(adapted from Petit and
Barquins 1988)
crack, which is tensile nature and secondary crack as
shear nature at the flaw tip. The tensile crack prop-
agated in an oblique direction at or near to the flaw
tip propagates in a curvilinear path towards the direc-
tion of maximum compressive stress. The shear crack
was observed coplanar or quasi-coplanar to the flaw
surface and found to always initiate in the compres-
sive stress field. Both tensile crack and shear crack
was found to be influenced by confinement which
in turn affects the failure pattern. Similar to Petit
and Barquins (1988), the length of the tensile crack
decreases with an increase in confinement and no ten-
sile cracks are observed for higher confinement. Shear
crack initiated is initially stable and later becomes
unstable and the crack is observed to initiate before
the tensile crack with the increase in confinement.
However, the study reveals the initiation of tensile
cracks and shear cracks observed at the same stress
level and for higher confinements, only shear cracks
were observed (Bobet, 2000). The tensile cracks
appears generally at the flaw tip for open flaw config-
uration under lower confinements based on an experi-
mental study by Mughieda and Karasneh (2006) on
cement mortar specimens with two pre-existing flaws.
However, for higher confining stress, tensile cracks
were also observed to initiate at the mid-section
of the flaw. The failure surface of the tensile crack
appears to be clean and smooth while the shear cracks
are found to have rough with the crushed and pulver-
ized surfaces. A recent study by Wang et al. (2020a,
b) on concrete plaster having two pre-existing open
flaws under biaxial confinements shows the specimen
is strongly influenced by its geometrical arrangement
of flaws. They observed a change in the failure mode
of the specimen from vertical to horizontal direction
with an increase in confinement. Also, shear cracks
were found to have more influence on the failure of
the specimen when confinement is higher.
The numerical analysis of the effect of biaxial
compression on pre-existing flaws was also studied
by Bobet and Einstein (1998b) based on hybridized
indirect boundary element method, FROCK to vali-
date their experiment. Similar to experiments, ten-
sile and shear cracks were observed to initiate from
the flaw tip. The tensile crack was found to initiate
from the flaw tip in the direction perpendicular to
maximum tensile tangential stress and when the tan-
gential stress reaches a critical value. Whereas, shear
crack initiate from flaw tip in the direction of maxi-
mum shear stress produced and when the shear stress
reaches a critical value. Their experimental study was
also extended by other researchers such as Bi et  al.
(2016) and Wang et  al. (2016) using General Parti-
cle Dynamics (GDP3D), novel meshless method and
extended Non-Ordinary State-based Peridynamics
(NOSB-PD) respectively considering flaws as open
configuration. In both their studies, the specimen fails
in the shear mode under biaxial compression with the
formation of macro-shear fractures which is differ-
ent from splitting failure under uniaxial compression.
The shear crack appears to be initiate sooner than
tensile crack when the lateral confinement increases
(Bi et  al. 2016). The study reveals that the increase
in lateral stress suppresses the tensile crack growth
which causes the specimen to predominantly fail
in shear mode. In the case of lower confinements,
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the specimen failure mode is similar to the observa-
tion of uniaxial compression (Wang et al. 2016). The
effect of lateral stress was also found to influence the
propagation trajectories based on the numerical study
by Zhao et  al. (2019) using the expanded distinct
element method (EDEM). They studied the crack
propagation on a single open flaw subjected to biax-
ial compression with different flaw angles. Based on
their analysis, with the increase in confinement, the
concentration of tensile stress responsible for tensile
crack gets inhibited whereas it triggers the initiation
and propagation of shear cracks influencing the fail-
ure trajectories of the material. The crack propagation
trajectories can vary for narrow/closed flaw configu-
ration since the tensile crack originated from flaw tip
shows lesser curvilinear path having sharper wing
initiation angle with respect to flaw surface (Fig.  3)
compared to open flaws (Shen et al. 1995; Wong and
Chau 1998). Further, the initiation of the wing and
shear cracks was higher in closed flaw configuration
(Bobet and Einstein 1998b). Previous analytical stud-
ies (Horri and Nemat-Naseer 1985; Ashy and Hallam
1986; Li et  al. 2018a), shows that the effect of fric-
tion between the flaw surfaces alters crack stresses in
narrow or closed flaw configuration. The crack stress
is found to initially decrease, reaches a minimum
value and later increase with the increase in flaw
angle for narrow flaw configuration (Xie et al. 2016;
Sivakumar and Maji 2018, 2021) under uniaxial
Fig. 3  Variation of a tensile crack path for different flaw sur-
face friction (μ) (adapted from Wong and Chau 1998)
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compression. Previous studies (Bobet and Einstein
1998a,b) were carried out under both open and nar-
row flaw configurations but the study was limited
only to three flaw angles (30°, 45° and 60°). Also, to
understand the crack propagation and its coalescence
pattern of narrow flaw under biaxial compression,
it is sensible, to begin with, crack growth behaviour
under a single flaw. Further, in experiments the direct
measurements of the stress field in the specimen are
very challenging, the numerical study is commonly
adopted where the cracking behaviour can be system-
atically monitored.
The present study focuses on the crack growth
behaviour of a single flaw where the frictional con-
tact between the flaw surfaces influencing the crack
stresses is studied under biaxial conditions. An
attempt is made to develop a biaxial setup by modi-
fying the conventional triaxial setup, an alternative
method to conduct the biaxial experiments. The test
is performed under two different geometries to know
the effect of specimen size by varying the width of
the specimen with respect to flaw length. The study is
later extended to numerical analysis using the Finite
Element Method using ABAQUS. For the present
study, Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) in
conjunction with the Cohesive Zone Model (CZM)
is adopted which is popular and effective to solve
the discontinuous analysis. The model is performed
to understand the crack propagation trajectories and
variation of crack stress due to the effect of flaw
closure with respect to their different angular orien-
tations. Further, the systematic behaviour of crack
growth under higher confinement levels and by vary-
ing frictional resistance between the flaw surfaces are
investigated.
2 Experimental investigation
2.1 Specimen preparation and the material properties
Much of the literature on narrow flaw configuration
was based on gypsum material which shows the real
brittle nature of homogenous and isotropic rock mate-
rial (Reyes and Einstein 1991; Bobet and Einstein
1998a; Sagong and Bobet 2002; Wong and Einstein
2009; Lee and Jeon 2011; Afolagboye et al. 2018). It
was also reported that there are decent similarities in
gypsum and real rock samples with respect to tensile
Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188 157
and shear cracks development. Also, the prepara-
tion of the sample and introduction of flaws is much
easier and therefore, in this present study gypsum is
adopted. The specimens are prepared using a fab-
ricated acrylic mould and the gypsum is made into
a slurry by adding 35% of water content (Sivaku-
mar and Maji 2021) to its total weight. The slurry
is poured into the mould and is allowed for curing.
Narrow flaws are made by using a thin metal shim
of the thickness of 0.1  mm which is inserted at the
mid-section of the specimen. Once the slurry attains
the solid state, the shim is removed by retaining a nar-
row gap in the specimen. The sample is further air-
dried for 24  h and oven-dried at 40  °C for the next
4 days. After curing, the specimens are tested on the
fifth day of preparation. Table  1 shows the physical
and mechanical properties of the gypsum used in the
present study. The properties are determined by fol-
lowing the ISRM suggested methods (ISRM 1978a,
b, 1979) and the specimens are tested after 5 days of
curing.
The dimensions of the specimen are 76.2  mm
(width) × 152.4 mm (height) × 30 mm (thick) adopted
for the present study. The effect of end friction due
to the platen boundary is taken care of by the mate-
rial geometry whose height to width ratio is 2:1. For
this specimen geometry, macroscopic failure has the
Table 1  Physical and Mechanical Properties of the gypsum
Property Values
Density, ρ (kg/m3) 1550
Average Young’s modulus, E (GPa) 1.037
Poisson’s ratio, υ 0.39
Uniaxial compressive strength, σc (MPa) 15.5
Tensile strength, σt (MPa) 1.11
Fig. 4  The possibility of
surface degradation (data
from Abdulla 1992)
different crack types visible namely initial tensile
crack, shear crack and subsidiary cracks. The geome-
try is adopted in all literature where the growth of the
tensile crack in the vertical direction and shear cracks
in the horizontal direction is commonly observed.
These cracks are propagated within the specimen
boundaries under uniaxial compression. Based on the
study conducted by Li et al (2018b) on artificial rock
specimens, there is a change in material strength by
varying the height to width ratio of the specimen. The
study noted that with an increase in the H/W ratio
in the specimen, their uniaxial compressive strength
decreases. According to Abdulla (1992) as the H/W
ratio is high the specimen may experience intense
surface initiated failure. The failure is seen in form of
deterioration along the surface of the specimen which
advances inward on further loading (Fig. 4).
The adopted dimension of the specimen has a H/W
ratio of 2, the specimen suffers from surface dete-
rioration in the form of far-field crack and extension
crack. Also, the growth of cracks (both primary and
secondary) from flaw tips does not get affected by
these surface cracks and hence the material strength
shows true behaviour. Based on the numerical study
by Zhang et al. (2015), when the ratio of flaw length
(2a) to the width of the specimen (W) is less than
0.33, the variation of crack initiation remains to be
subtle under uniaxial compression. But in the case
of biaxial loading, the effect of end surface friction
becomes higher. The increase in the end friction can
increase the surface failure zone with higher devia-
tor stress due to confinement. Previous case stud-
ies have performed analysis on the prismatic speci-
men, where the ratio of specimen width (W) to flaw
length (2a) is 6. Specimen having multiple flaws dis-
tributed along the width of the specimen gets influ-
enced by the boundary confinement and alters the
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final failure mode. Therefore, the effect of the width
of the specimen is considered to influence the failure
pattern. Two specimen geometries namely BI and
BII are adopted (Fig.  5). The size of the BI geome-
try is 76.2 mm (width) × 152.4 mm (height) × 30 mm
(thick) with a flaw length of 12.5  mm similar to
the uniaxial case study where the ratio between the
width of the specimen (W) and flaw length (2a) is 6.
For the BII type, the size of the geometry is 125 mm
(width) × 150 mm (height) × 30 mm (thick) where the
ratio W/2a is 10. Also, the slenderness of the material
is ensured a non-buckling effect in the specimen.
2.2 Biaxial testing apparatus
The biaxial loading is performed using conventional
triaxial apparatus which was modified according to
plane stress state conditions. The proposed setup is
an alternative method compared to the conventional
biaxial setup by previous literature (Bobet and Ein-
stein 1998a; Mughieda and Karasneh 2006). In the
present study, a heavy-duty large-diameter triaxial
cell for 150 mm diameter sample sizes is adopted with
maximum working pressure up to 2000 kPa (2 MPa).
The testing is carried out in a uniaxial compression
testing machine with a capacity of 500 kN and the
loading is applied in a displacement-controlled man-
ner. The triaxial cell apparatus is placed in the test-
ing machine. Inside the cell, the specimen is placed
in between the loading platen made of aluminium.
The dimension of both top and bottom platens varies
with respect to two different geometries (BI and BII)
Fig. 5  Sample prepared
with two geometry sizes a
BI and b BII
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as shown in Fig. 6. The bottom plate was fixed with
the bottom plate of triaxial equipment. To restrict the
loading in two directions, modification is carried out
on the existing setup. Figure 7 shows the arrangement
of the specimen with an acrylic plate fixed on either
side of the specimen. The plate is installed to pre-
vent the confinement acting at the facial direction and
their movement is restricted by locking with stainless
steel (SS) nuts. Thus, when the arrangement is placed
inside the triaxial cell, the confinement is allowed to
act through the specimen thickness. When the speci-
men is subjected to deviatoric loading along with
the height of the specimen, due to Poisson’s effect,
a lateral deformation would enforce additional stress
on the acrylic plate. An open-cell rubber foam mem-
brane of thickness 5 mm was provided in-between the
specimen and acrylic plate to absorb these stresses.
The foam is glued with the sheet and to retain vis-
ibility of the crack, a rectangular opening is made at
the center of the rubber foam sheet. The rubber foam
has good cushioning performance, is lightweight with
good impact damping characteristics and is low cost.
The configured setup of the specimen undergoing
biaxial compression in-plane stress state is discussed
in appendix.
In the initial stage of loading, confinement
is applied by an air pressure regulator as shown
in Fig.  6. The air pressure coming from the out-
let value is connected to the filter. The purpose is
to avoid the water formed by condensation inside
the PVC pipe getting into the air pressure regula-
tor (Fig.  6). After the confinement is given, the
Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188 159
Fig. 6  Complete configuration of modified triaxial setup in the present study
deviatoric loading is applied from the bottom
platen. The rate of loading is assumed as 0.031 mm/
min similar to the loading rate adopted for the sin-
gle flaw study. The load and displacement are moni-
tored for every second by using a datalogger to get
a stress–strain plot. The triaxial equipment available
in the laboratory has a triaxial cell with a maximum
capacity of 2000  kPa. Therefore confinements are
applied within this limit. The confinement applied
in the triaxial cell via air pressure can produce only
a maximum of 700  kPa, but an air booster is used
to double the existing pressure (Fig.  6). Hence by
considering the above limitation, the present study
was performed on two confinements of 650  kPa
(0.65  MPa) and 1240  kPa (1.24  MPa) with low
strength gypsum. A relatively higher-pressure
large-diameter cell with confinement upto 15  MPa
as an extension of the present study is under
progress.
3 Experimental Results
The experimental study is carried out until the mate-
rial reaches its macroscopic failure. Due to difficulty
in retrieving the specimen after the test, only the
visible portion of the failure pattern which could be
captured photographically was presented in the study.
The crack trajectories and corresponding crack stress
for two different geometries BI and BII are discussed
under two confinements (0.65 MPa and 1.24 MPa).
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Fig. 7  Schematic representation of modified biaxial setup inside the triaxial cell for BII type specimen a Front view and b Cross-
sectional view
3.1 Crack Growth Pattern
The tensile cracks were observed to appear in all
the specimens irrespective of flaw angle and con-
finement (Figs. 8 and 9). The tensile crack surfaces
are generally open and their path are smooth, which
can be noticed from the flaw surface (Bobet and
Einstein 1998a, b; Wong and Einstein 2009; Park
and Bobet 2009, 2010; Sivakumar and Maji 2018,
2021). Subsequently, shear crack (S) is observed in
a coplanar or oblique direction to the flaw surface.
The crack surfaces are generally rough with indica-
tion of slip between the face of the surface. In the
present study, four types of wing crack trajectories
were identified and classified based on the study by
Wong and Einstein (2009). They are as follows: cur-
vilinear wing-like tensile crack (T1), straight tensile
crack (T2), mixed tensile/shear crack (T3) and anti-
wing tensile crack (T4). T1 type crack which initi-
ates oblique to the flaw surface is curvilinear, and
later the crack propagation changes its path aligning
like a wing inward towards the direction of major
principal stress applied. T2 type crack initiates
quasi-coplanar to the flaw surface and later shifts
its alignment towards the direction of maximum
principal stress direction. T3 type tensile crack is
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observed to propagate at a small distance along the
shear crack in coplanar direction but the crack path
shifts immediately towards the maximum principal
stress direction. T4 type is observed to be grow-
ing parallel to T1 type crack but in the opposite
direction.
For the confinement of 0.65  MPa, T1 type is
observed at least in one of the flaw tips for L15–L45
in BI specimens and L15-L60 in BII specimens. From
the experiments, for L15 specimens having the low-
est flaw angle only T1 type were observed at both
flaw tips irrespective of the specimen geometries
and confinement. Similarly, the T2 type wing crack
is commonly observed for high flaw angle specimen
such as L75 specimen in both flaw tips for BI speci-
mens. In the case of BII geometry, both T1 and T2
type cracks are observed at one of the flaw tips under
both confinements. The propagation of tensile crack
not always grows directly towards the direction of
major principal stress but away from it (L60 and L75
in BII). The specimens whose flaw angle lies between
30° and 60°, crack types of T1 and T3 each observed
at the flaw tips in BI type geometries. Also, at the
flaw tip where T3 type wing crack is observed, a
well-defined shear crack is observed. The shear crack
initiates in the quasi coplanar direction from the flaw
Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188 161
surface and is mostly accompanied by spalling (high-
lighted with pattern). However, the initiated crack
propagates rapidly when the material reaches its peak
strength. The observed crack grows towards a nearby
boundary and possibly gets linked with external field
crack (F) causing BI type specimen to fail under lat-
eral shear crack growth. Hence, the overall failure
pattern of BI type specimens is mostly affected by
the shear crack along with the fully developed tensile
cracks. The shear crack is also observed in L60 and
L75 specimens under 1.24 MPa confinement, but the
propagated length limits within the material boundary
and does not influence the material failure.
For BII type specimen, for L30 and L45 specimen,
a mixed T1-T2 and T2 is observed respectively at one
of the flaw tips under 0.65 MPa confinement and for
L60 specimen, only T1 type is observed. In the case
of 1.24  MPa confinement, only T1 type wing crack
was observed for L30-L60 specimens. T3 type wing
crack is not observed in any specimens, except for
L30 under 0.65  MPa confinement where both shear
crack and spalling is seen but little away from the
flaw tip. Also, the presence of spalling or shear crack
is observed for low flaw angle specimen L15 and L30,
L75 under 1.24 MPa confinement, however, the mode
of tensile crack remains to be T1 type. Further, in
BII geometry the failure of the specimen is governed
only by wing crack trajectories and does not get influ-
enced by nearby shear crack spalling or nearby field
cracks (F) unlike BI type geometries. Among all the
specimens, T4 type anti-wing crack is only observed
in L30 specimen for both BI and BII type geometries
under 0.65  MPa confinement and L15 specimen
under 1.24 MPa confinement at one of the flaw tips.
3.2 Stress Analysis
Figure  10 shows the crack initiation stress and peak
stress under two confinements with both BI and BII
geometries. Peak stress occurs immediately after the
crack initiation stress for BI geometry in the speci-
mens with flaw angles ranging from 15° to 45°.
Whereas for BII type specimens, peak stress was
found to be relatively higher than BI type geometry
for L15 specimens. The crack initiation stress was
found to initiate sooner for flaw angle 45° in both
confinements irrespective of the specimen geom-
etry which is similar to the observed phenomenon
by previous researchers (Xie et  al. 2016; Sivakumar
and Maji 2018, 2021) under narrow flaw configura-
tions. For L30 and L45 specimens, there is a signifi-
cant difference in the crack initiation stress and peak
stress, unlike BI geometry. Based on crack growth
observed for both geometries, in BII type specimens
the tensile crack initiates and propagates gradually
causing a relatively higher time to reach its material
peak. Whereas in BI type specimen, the shear cracks
and spalling produced at the flaw tip will get extended
due to horizontal stress acting close to the flaw tip.
This is due to the boundary effect of horizontal stress
acting at the specimen where the alignment of flaw
tip for low inclined angles is closer to the horizontal
boundary. Therefore, the initiated cracks, especially
the shear crack initiated at coplanar direction can
experiences surface deportations at the edge of the
specimens (Abdulla 1992). But in the case of BII type
specimen, with a relatively larger distance between
the flaw tip and horizontal boundary, the cracks ini-
tiated from the flaw tip due to increasing in the dis-
tance from the tip does not get influenced by hori-
zontal stress confinement. Hence, BII type specimen
was found to be more reliable in predicting the crack
stress when specimen subjected to biaxial compres-
sion. The difference between crack stress and peak
stress appears to be narrower for the L60 specimen in
BI geometry, where a shear crack was found to influ-
ence the material failure under 1.24  MPa confine-
ment. In L75 for BI type specimen, the crack initia-
tion and peak stress occur at the same time.
3.3 Comparison Between Uniaxial and Biaxial
Compression
To understand the behaviour of the wing crack initia-
tion stress and peak stress on a narrow flaw condition,
the result is compared with the uniaxial compression
test (Fig. 11) based on the same material adopted by
Sivakumar and Maji (2021). The crack stresses are
compared for different flaw angles under biaxial com-
pression based on BII type geometry. Both crack ini-
tiation stress and peak stress increase with an increase
in confinement. In the present study, the specimen
of flaw angle 45° is favourable to initiate the crack
sooner compared to other flaw angles under confine-
ments of 0  MPa, 0.65  MPa and 1.24  MPa. For L15
specimens, the difference between the crack initia-
tion stress and peak stress decreases with an increase
in confinement. Under uniaxial compression, the
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Final Failure Crack types

β° BI BII BI BII

L15

L30

L45

L60

L75

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◂Fig. 8  Failure patterns and crack types observed on single
flaw specimens for different flaw angle (β°) under 0.65  MPa
confinement
specimen fails by the growth of shear crack propa-
gated from one of the flaw tips which grows after the
growth of wing crack subsides (Sivakumar and Maji
2021). The crack gets initiated in an oblique direction
to the flaw surface and grows almost half of the flaw
length. The crack later aligns towards the direction
of major stress loading propagating as a secondary
tensile crack similar to the phenomenon observed by
Vásárhelyi and Bobet (2000) causing the material to
reach its failure. Whereas, in the case of biaxial com-
pression under BII type geometry the material fails
only due to the growth of wing crack. In the case of
intermediate flaw angles 30°, 45° and 60°, irrespec-
tive of the confinement the difference between these
two stresses observed to be relatively higher com-
pared to 15° and 75° angles. However, it becomes
narrower with an increase in confinement. This is due
to the difference in crack trajectories observed for
uniaxial compression, where the specimens observed
failing not by half-developed wing crack but the
developing crack from a coplanar shear crack at the
flaw tip which gets extended. The extended cracks
later deviate into the direction of an angle ranging
between 55°and 65° and propagate in an unstable
manner and fail. The direction of this crack path is
relatively longer which causes a relatively long time
to reach the peak strength. But, in the case of biaxial
compression, the failure of the specimen under BII
type geometry is found to be influenced by the fully
developed tensile crack. Though shear cracks are
observed in L30 specimens, their propagation sub-
sides within the boundary limit. For high flaw angle
specimens L75, where T2 type tensile cracks initi-
ates directly along the direction of loading at the flaw
surface causing the peak stress to reach sooner after
initiation.
4 Numerical Analysis
4.1 Numerical Model and Input Parameters
A numerical analysis is performed to study the sys-
tematic behaviour of crack growth and failure pat-
terns observed under biaxial compression. In the
present study, the analysis was carried out using finite
element based tool ABAQUS considering extended
finite element method (XFEM) with cohesive zone
model (CZM). CZM was proposed by Hillerborg
et  al. (1976), by combining the approach of Dug-
dale (1960) and Barenblatt (1962) models where
the plasticity zones are considered to exhibit ahead
of discontinuity tip. The model is most suitable for
quasi-brittle material like concrete, rock, etc. but fol-
lows pre-assumption of initiated crack to propagate
only along the boundaries of elements (Xu and Yuan
2011). In XFEM, based on the partition of unity con-
cept the elements around the discontinuity surface
are enriched with additional degrees of freedom and
hence the crack growth is not influenced by mesh
configuration and without re-meshing at discontinuity
tip (Xu and Yuan 2011; Gonçalves da Silva and Ein-
stein 2013). Hence in recent studies, XFEM is gener-
ally used in conjunction with CZM (Xie et al. 2016;
Sivakumar and Maji 2016; Zhou et  al. 2020; Siva-
kumar and Maji 2021) for rock having pre-existing
flaws.
According to CZM, the flaw experiences tractions
in the normal (mode I) and in-plane shear (mode II)
direction across the flaw surface when subjected to
compressive loading. The crack gets initiated once
the traction exists within its threshold limit under
mixed-mode and energy gets dissipated during propa-
gation (Sivakumar and Maji 2021). The maximum
principal stress (σmaxps) criteria which account for
both modes I and II, is the most widely used crite-
ria for brittle materials like a rock (Xie et  al. 2016)
and concrete (Xu and Yuan 2011) to describe the
onset of crack initiation. Once the traction crosses its
limit and the evolution of traction to complete deg-
radation is defined by relative displacement (δm), an
alternative approach to defining the dissipated energy
post-initiation. The input parameters are determined
by Central Straight Notch Brazilian Disk (CSNBD),
a fracture toughness test as per the suggested method
ISRM (1995). To account for the effect of friction
which is due to closure between the flaw surfaces
and subsequent sliding across the surface, CZM
considers kinetic friction coefficient. The coefficient
is used to describe the relationship between tangen-
tial and normal behaviour of the discontinuity under
closure. Further, in the contact problem, the element
at the discontinuity surface may exhibit penetration
between them when it comes in contact (Munijiza and
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Final Failure Crack types

β°
BI BII BI BII

L15

L30

L45

L60

L75

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◂Fig. 9  Failure patterns and crack types observed on single
flaw specimens for different flaw angle (β°) under 1.24  MPa
confinement
John 2002). Hence, an additional parameter, penalty/
contact stiffness (Kp) is adopted which is a function
of stiffness factor (α) multiplied by axial stiffness of
the element (i.e. ‘αE’). The factor value generally
lies in the range of 1 to 1000 times Young’s modulus
(Mahabadi 2012).
For the present study, the numerical model is per-
formed as a two-dimensional plane stress problem and
analysis is performed with additional confinements
of 3 MPa and 5 MPa. The dimension of the model is
76.2 mm (width) × 152.4 mm (height) for BI type speci-
mens and 125  mm (width) × 150  mm (height) for BII
type specimens analogous to experiments (Fig. 10). The
mesh size of 1.5  mm is adopted for the current study
(Sivakumar and Maji 2021), such that the size of the
element should be smaller than the plastic zone (Hiller-
borg et al. 1976). The element type used for the model
is CPS4R, a 4-node bilinear plane stress quadrilateral
and the analysis is solved with a dynamic implicit pro-
cedure by a reduced integration method. The biaxial
loading is given in two stages, wherein the first stage
the confinement is applied in both ‘x’ and ‘y’ directions
with gradual increments. At the end of the first step, the
specimen reaches the required confinement stress in
both directions. In the next stage, the confinement stress
is maintained and deviatoric loading is given at the bot-
tom end of the specimen as the displacement loading
of 0.031 mm/min till the material reaches the complete
failure. In both stages, the model is fixed in ‘y’ direc-
tion at the top boundary of the specimen (Fig. 12). The
material input parameters (Table  1) and CZM param-
eters of gypsum (Table  2) are adopted from a previ-
ous study by Sivakumar and Maji (2021). The detailed
mathematical formulation of the numerical analysis is
provided in the earlier paper by the authors in a similar
study under uniaxial compression (Sivakumar and Maji
2021). The failure pattern obtained based on the maxi-
mum principal stress and shear stress contour is com-
pared with experimental results. In ABAQUS, the sign
conventions used to represent tension and compression
are positive and negative respectively. Also, the crack
stresses observed are compared with experiment results
by monitoring the crack growth behaviour with respect
to initiation and peak stress of the material.
5 Numerical Results
The failure pattern in the numerical model is depicted
in terms of maximum principal stress contour (Smax)
and shear stress contour (S12). The numerical model
follows the sign convention for tension as positive
and compression as negative. The crack simulation
in XFEM is only limited to tensile cracks. The pre-
vious works of literature (Bobet 2000, Gonçalves da
Silva and Einstein, 2013), predicted the formation of
the shear crack where shear stress is maximum and
the crack is expected to form in the region where
higher compressive field exists. Based on the above
hypothesis, for the present study, the possible forma-
tion of shear crack and spalling are identified on a
high compressive stress region and shear zone which
can be visualized by Smax and S12 stress contours
respectively.
5.1 Crack Growth Pattern
Figures 13 and 14, shows the material failure obtained
for biaxial compression with two different confine-
ments, 0.65 and 1.24 MPa with respect to Smax and
S12 contours. The tensile crack was observed pre-
dominantly in all the specimens, where the crack ini-
tiates from the flaw tip and the mode of crack type
is categorized based on crack trajectory. For a low
flaw angle specimen L15, T3 type tensile crack was
observed unlike experiments in BI geometry under
both confinements. In the case of BII geometry, a
mixed T1-T3 type tensile crack was observed where
crack initiates first in T1 oblique to the flaw surface
and makes an outward wing-like T3 and later aligns
towards the direction of the maximum compressive
stress direction. When the flaw angle increases, T1
type tensile crack is observed initiating for L30, L45
and L60 specimens under both confinements irre-
spective of the material geometry. However, it can be
observed that the propagated tensile crack does not
completely reach the material boundary for L15–L45
in BI geometry when the confinement increases to
1.24  MPa confinement. The specimen often fails by
the predominant shear stress contour observed along
the horizontal direction from the flaw tip usually
accompanied by a higher compressive stress field
(Smax). The stress contour was observed in the quasi-
coplanar direction from the flaw tip for the L15 speci-
men moving towards the horizontal boundary. When
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Fig. 10  Crack initiation stress and peak stress obtained from
the experiments in single flaw condition for two different
geometry specimens under confinements of a 0.65 MPa and b
1.24 MPa
the flaw angle increases, the quasi-coplanar crack
deviates away from the horizontal boundary and
completely limits within the flaw tip and surface for
a higher flaw angle (L60 and L75). Based on Smax
and S12 contours in both confinements (0.65  MPa
and 1.24 MPa), the material fails by dominated shear
crack before the wing crack fully propagates for L15,
L30 and L45 in BI specimens. Based on Smax con-
tour, the tensile crack formation was observed at
the edge of the specimen in the vertical direction.
When the loading is applied, this tensile formation is
observed to approaching the flaw tip, where already
developed shear stress contour can be observed from
the S12 stress contour. This prompts the BI specimens
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Fig. 11  Crack initiation stress and peak stress of single flaw
specimen under biaxial compression in the experiment
to fail due to lateral shear crack which propagates to
the material boundary in the horizontal direction.
Whereas, for BII type, the observed tensile forma-
tion from the edge and the shear stress contour zone
was found to be within the material boundary. Due
to the increase in distance between the flaw tip and
horizontal boundary the shear crack subsides within
the material boundary. This was noticed in L15, L30
and L45 specimens in both the confinements. The
material failure in BII type geometries is most influ-
enced by wing crack where the length of the crack is
relatively longer than BI type specimens. However,
in high flaw angles (L60 and L75) specimens, the
material fails by only by wing crack in both geom-
etries under both confinements. The observed shear
stress contour from the flaw tip was found to be lim-
ited within the material boundary and becomes much
smaller when the flaw angle increases. Also, the L75
specimen exhibits T2 type tensile crack is observed
irrespective of the material geometries similar to the
experimental study. Even though there is some shear
stress concentration around the flawed surface they do
not influence the material failure and forming a pos-
sible linkage with the existing contour region.
5.2 Stress Analysis
The crack initiation and peak stress observed for
different flaw angles under two confinements from
ABAQUS are shown in Fig.  15. For BI geometry
Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188 167

Fig. 12  Geometry and
boundary conditions of BI BII
single flaw a BI and b BII
specimens

(a) (b)

Table 2  Cohesive zone parameters adopted in the numerical
model
Material parameters
Traction for Mode I (MPa)
Traction for Mode II (MPa)
Relative displacement under mixed-mode (µm)
Damage stabilisation cohesive
Kinetic friction coefficient
Penalty stiffness (GPa/m)
the confinement increases the crack appears a little
sooner compared to lower confinements. The crack
Values initiation (tensile and shear) and peak stress increase
in higher stress levels in 1.24 MPa confinement com-
1.217
pared to 0.65 MPa. For 1.24 MPa confinement load-
1.465
ing, both crack initiation and peak stress follow simi-
8.616
lar trend behaviour. However, the difference between
1e-5
the crack initiation and peak stresses is relatively
0.28
lesser compared to lower confinement (1.24  MPa)
1.04 × ­102
which is similar to the experimental results.

5.3 Effect of the Flaw Length and Width of the

specimen, the crack initiation stress due to tensile
and shear crack initiate at the same stress level. The
peak stress was observed to be closer after initiation
stress upto flaw angle of 45° similar to experimen-
tal studies. Generally, for low flaw angles, the flaw
surface friction becomes higher which is reflected
in experiments as the slippage between the flaw sur-
faces is higher. Due to boundary confinement in BI
geometry, the influence of lateral stress causes the
specimen to reach the peak stress immediately after
its crack initiation. When the ratio between the flaw
length and width of the specimen is lower, the lateral
cracks i.e. shear cracks observed in low flaw angle
specimens (L15-L45) is found to be easily influenced
by confinement in BI type specimen (Yang and Jing,
2011). In the case of BII type geometry, the shear
crack was observed to initiate before wing crack for
the intermediate flaw angles (30°—60°) and when
Specimen
For a better understanding of the crack trajectories
based on the ratio between the width of the specimen
and flaw length, a final failure pattern was obtained
for L45 specimens in BI and BII specimens under
0.65 MPa and 1.24 MPa confinements is considered.
The failure is compared with the experiment and the
numerical model was able to closely simulate the
crack growth behaviour under biaxial compression
(Fig. 16). Based on the maximum principal stress con-
tour (Smax), the flaw surface was observed to show
a compressive stress field at the surface. For BI type
specimen the tensile crack and shear crack initiated
from the flaw tip but unlike uniaxial compression,
the wing cracks was observed to deviate a little away
from the major principal loading direction. Whereas,
in BII type specimen the stress concentration is

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(a) BI
L15c650 L30c650 L45c650 L60c650 L75c650

Smax

S12

Crack type

(b) BII
L15c650R L30c650R L45c650R L60c650R L75c650R

Smax

S12

Crack
type

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◂Fig. 13  Failure contours (Smax and S12) and tensile crack
types obtained in ABAQUS for 0.65 MPa confinement on a BI
and b BII geometries
observed to be restricted within the limit of flaw sur-
face and away from the horizontal boundary by the
influence of lateral confinement. Hence the possible
formation of shear crack appearance does not seems
to influence the material failure. To understand the
systematic behaviour of the crack growth under these
two geometries, six monitoring points is analyzed
based on S11 and S12 shear stress around the flaw
surface (Figs. 17 and 19). The stresses will be moni-
tored for the L45 specimen at different stages, from
initial confinement till the material reaches its com-
plete failure (Figs. 18 and 20).
At the initial stage of crack, the formation of
concentrated shear stress contour is seen at the flaw
tips and it grows gradually upon loading. The con-
centrated stress becomes narrower when the ten-
sile crack initiates at the monitoring points 2 and 5
(Figs.  17 and 19). The contour later gets wider and
propagated towards the flawed surface as well from
the tip of the flaw propagating in a coplanar direction.
Crack behaviour upto this stage was found to be very
similar under both geometries and S12 observed to
growing linearly at all points (1–6). Generally, when
the tensile crack initiates, the S11 value lies in the
positive region which witnesses the peak at the initia-
tion stage. But, prior to that, a minor increment can
be seen in the S12 trend line at points 1, 2, 5 and 6,
indicating the concentrated appearance of shear stress
contour at the flaw tips. The value of S11 lies nega-
tive, compressive direction at points 1, 3, 4 and 6
and on the positive side where tensile crack appears
(Figs. 18 and 20). The concentrated shear stress was
found to re-distribute around the flaw surface after
crack initiation observed from the flaw tips. The S11
stress later increases at the peak stress but drops down
near to zero value (Figs.  18a and 20a) and the S12
at points 1 and 5 reaches its residual strength failure
near to zero and constant value. Due to the effect of
lateral confinement, the horizontal movement of the
specimen is restrained causing additional stress con-
centration at the boundary (Li et  al. 2018c). This
additional concentration based on Smax contour, at
the end surface, causes surface deterioration where
additional subsidiary cracks are formed which is
observed in experiments (Figs.  13a and 14a). The
propagated shear cracks which are growing in a
coplanar direction gets influenced by nearby subsidi-
ary cracks and gets coalesce with that crack causing
material ultimate failure in BI specimens. Whereas, in
BII geometry under both confinements, the S11 stress
is found to increase linearly and S12 shear stress is
observed to be linear unlike the higher increase
observed in BI type specimens. The flaw tip stresses
(S11 and S12 in Figs. 18b and 20b) were observed to
have a linear increase after wing crack initiation till
the tensile crack reaches the material boundary. The
S12 stress at all points (1–6) after reaching its peak
drops to some residual value where the shear stress
contour exhibits. The S11 stress in compressive direc-
tion indicates the shear crack though developed after
tensile crack initiation till its peak does not experi-
ence drops in its value indicating no slippage at points
3 and 4 (Figs. 18b and 20b) or possible shear sliding
at 1, 2, 5 and 6. The increase in width of the speci-
men causes the compressive stress field to subside
throughout loading. Also from the observation of
shear stress contour, the growth of the contour con-
tained within the horizontal boundary does not grow
rapidly at the stage between the crack initiation and
peak stress. Therefore, the specimen is observed
to reach its failure only by a fully developed wing
crack. The presence of subsidiary cracks was also
not observed compared to BI type specimen. Hence,
it can be understood that in order to study the influ-
ence of the single flaw, the ratio between the width of
the specimen and flaw surface will govern the crack
initiation type and material failure pattern. There-
fore, for the present study BII type specimen will be
adopted for monitoring the crack stress characteris-
tic under biaxial confinement to study under a single
flaw condition.
5.4 Biaxial Compression Under 3 MPa and 5 MPa
Confinements
The effect of confinement with additional ranges
namely 3 and 5 MPa is performed using ABAQUS
to study the crack stress and its failure pattern under
higher confinements using BII geometry. The analy-
sis shows a further reduction in length of the ten-
sile crack and increases in shear stress contour with
an increase in confinement. Under 3  MPa confine-
ment, the mode of tensile crack changes from T1 to
mixed T1 and T2/T3 is observed for all flaw angles
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(a) BI
L15c1240 L30c1240 L45c1240 L60c1240 L75c1240

Smax

S12

Crack type

(b)
BII
L15c1240R L30c1240R L45c1240R L60c1240R L75c1240R

Smax

S12

Crack
type

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◂Fig. 14  Failure contours (Smax and S12) and tensile crack
types obtained in ABAQUS for 1.24 MPa confinement on a BI
and b BII geometries
except for the L45 specimen (Fig. 20). At flaw angle
45°, the specimen crack type T1 remains unchanged
where the presence of mixed-mode condition still
exists under that angle. The formation of the shear
stress contour zone was observed in coplanar for
intermediate flaw angles. Unlike in previous con-
finements, the distribution of shear stress across
the flaw surface is observed even for L75, but the
growth of the shear zone is limited within the mate-
rial boundary. When the confinement increases to
5  MPa, only T3 type tensile crack is observed in
all flaw angles. The propagated crack length is the
least of other confinements and the specimen was
observed to have the dominant presence of shear
stress contour in all flaw angles. A similar observa-
tion was noted by Hoek and Martin (2014), under
intact conditions the tensile crack growth is sus-
ceptible to the increase in confinement level. The
nature of failure changes from tensile to shear when
the minor to major principal stress ratio reaches
approximately 0.2. From Fig.  21, the direction
of shear stress contour lies in the range of typical
failure plane 55°–65°. Overall, with an increase in
confinement, the failure pattern changes from axial
splitting to shear failure.
Figure  22 shows the crack initiation stress based
on tensile crack and possible shear crack appear-
ance from Smax and S12 contour for different flaw
angles under biaxial confinements 0 MPa, 0.65 MPa,
1.24  MPa, 3  MPa and 5  MPa. Based on the previ-
ous study by Sivakumar and Maji (2021) the crack
stresses decrease with an increase in flaw angle,
reaches a minimum value at around 45° and again it
increases for 0  MPa, 0.65  MPa and 1.24  MPa con-
finements. The stress pattern shows an undulated
behaviour for lower confinements similar to uniaxial
conditions. However when the confinement increases
to 3 MPa and 5 MPa, undulant behaviour changes and
the crack stress is observed to fail in the same stress
level for intermediate flaw angles 30°, 45° and 60°.
Also, the crack stress observed a change in the shift
from 45° to 30° flaw angle at higher confinement
(5 MPa) which is similarly observed by Vergara et al.
(2016) and Bahaaddini et  al. (2013). Based on S12
stress contour, the possible formation of shear crack
appears to be sooner than wing crack with an increase
in confinement and at higher confinement levels this
trend was observed for 15° and 75° angles. The ten-
sile crack, however, initiates at a stress level closer to
the peak stress, especially for higher confinements.
The variation of the crack stress is often influenced
by the shear resistance due to the closure between
the flaw surfaces on a narrow flaw configuration. The
resistance between the flaws can cause a delay in the
initiation of cracks from the flaw tip until it reaches
the flaw tip threshold limit (Ashby and Hallam 1986).
Once the limit is reached, the shear force re-distribute
along with the flaw as shown in the numerical model
in Figs.  17 and 19. With the increase in loading the
sliding deformation between the surfaces occurs
with an increase in length of the tensile crack and
subsequent growth of shear cracks. Generally, the
flaw surface closure reduces with an increase in flaw
angle causing a reduction in shear resistance between
the flaw surfaces (Bobet and Einstein 1998a, b; Xie
et  al. 2016; Sivakumar and Maji 2021). Figure  23
shows the shear force acting on the flaw surface at
the time of tensile crack initiation based on confine-
ments 0.65 MPa, 1.24 MPa, 3 MPa and 5 MPa. Upto
the confinements of 3 MPa, the shear force resistance
is higher at a low flaw angle of 15° and the force is
nearly zero at 75° indicating no closure between the
flaw surfaces. When the confinement increases, the
shear forces difference between the intermediate
angles reduces. At the higher confinement 5  MPa,
expect for flaw angle of 15° for all other flaw angles
the difference of the shear force at intermediate
flaw angles becomes much closer. The crack stress
observed to initiate at the same stress level and failure
of the surface is due to a fully developed shear stress
contour which propagates relatively quasi-coplanar
direction from the flaw surface. It can be observed
from Fig.  23d, that the shear force acting across the
flaw surface for flaw angle 45° is higher than flaw
angle 30°. Also, the shear force observed at interme-
diate flaw angles is much narrower compared to lower
confinements. Further, there exists some reason-
able shear resistance at the flaw angle of 75° unlike
observed in lower confinements.
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Fig. 15  Crack initiation stress and peak stress in ABAQUS for
single flaw under confinements of a 0.65 MPa and b 1.24 MPa
5.5 Mode of Tensile Crack Due to the Effect of Flaw
Surface Friction
The analysis is further extended to know the effect of
friction based on tensile crack mode behaviour under
three different confinements 0  MPa, 1.24  MPa and
5  MPa. The results are discussed based on the vari-
ation in tensile crack initiation and propagation path
by comparing with varying friction values (Fig. 24).
The values are chosen to represent the flaw sur-
face between the condition when the surface is open
(μ = 0) is open and complete closure with higher fric-
tion (μ = 0.9). The additional values 0.28 and 0.5 are
used in the present analysis. For 0 MPa, the increase
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in coefficient value reduces the propagated length of
the tensile crack. It can be observed that for higher
friction coefficient (0.9) the length of the tensile crack
is relatively smaller compared to other values. The
initiated tensile crack propagates with a lesser cur-
vilinear path when the confinement increases, and
the mode of tensile crack remain as type1 (T1). The
initiation direction becomes almost perpendicular to
the oblique direction making sharper initiation com-
pared to previous friction values. At higher friction,
the crack initiates such that it propagates directly into
the loading direction thus shifting the mode to type 2
tensile crack (T2).
When 1.24 MPa lateral confinement is applied, the
crack initiates similarly as the perpendicular changes
to oblique direction, forming type 1 tensile crack
(T1). At a high friction coefficient, the crack initiates
in a coplanar direction to the flaw surface and forms
type 3 tensile crack (T3) instead of T2. The effect of
lateral confinement also alters the trajectory of crack
propagation for different friction values. At a lower
friction value, the initiated crack takes a curvilinear
path for a smaller length and with the increase in con-
finement, their length reduces similar to the uniaxial
condition. Unlike the uniaxial case, the propagated
crack does not grow directly towards the major com-
pressive loading direction. Instead, the crack takes
a curvilinear outward direction and later near to the
material peak, it aligns towards the major loading
direction. Also, the propagated crack reaches its top
and bottom boundary compared to previous material
geometry (BI). This is clearly due to the effect of the
W/2a ratio, where the material failure is completely
influenced by tensile crack growth. However, for a
higher friction value, the initiated crack propagates
curvilinear outward. Also, the length of the crack is
limited within the material boundary as the material
reaches its peak.
The effect of confinement which causes the reduc-
tion in tensile crack length for a higher confinement
also shows that the increase in friction further reduces
its length. T1 type tensile crack mode is observed
when there is no friction and a mixed T3 and T1 are
observed for 0.28 value. With increase in the value,
only dominated T3 mode tensile crack is observed.
The mode of initiation for T3 is similar where the
crack initiates quasi coplanar direction from the flaw
surface. However, the mode of propagation path is
observed to change where the lesser curvilinearity is
Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188 173
Confining BI
pressure
(MPa) Experiment Numerical
0.65
1.24
Fig. 16  Crack growth pattern observed for L45 subjected to confinement of 0.65  MPa and 1.24  MPa for BI and BII specimen in
experimental and numerical studies
observed for 0.28 and 0.5. For higher value, the ini-
tiated tensile crack was observed to grow curvilinear
outward similar to the 1.24  MPa confinement level.
Thus, the variation in friction value will inherently
change the mode of tensile crack and their propaga-
tion path which will influence the final failure pattern.
Apart from lateral confinement and ratio W/2a effect,
the frictional characteristic on narrow flaw surfaces of
the specimen will categorize the overall mode of the
material failure. The analysis reveals that the increase
in friction coefficient value makes tensile crack less
curvilinear (inward direction) and sharper initiation
which is also reported by Wong and Chau (1998) in
their experimental study on uniaxial compression.
From the present study, for the increase in lateral
confinement at a higher friction value, the mode of
initiation changes to sharper initiation to the outward
curvilinear path. Since the present study is limited to
a single flaw configuration, the effect of coalescence
between two flaws is not studied. The extension of
this study into double flaw configuration could lead
BII
Experiment Numerical
to a different perspective on failure mode, particularly
when subjected to higher confinements.
6 Summary and Conclusions
The behaviour of the crack and its failure pattern
subjected to biaxial loading is studied with a sin-
gle narrow flaw configuration. The conventional
triaxial setup was adopted and an in-house modi-
fication was made to get a biaxial loading condi-
tion. The experimental study was performed with
two different specimen geometries in low strength
gypsum having a single flaw and under two different
confinements 0.65 MPa and 1.24 MPa. The sample
geometries are classified based on the ratio between
the width of the specimen and flaw length into BI
(W/2a = 6) and BII (W/2a = 10) type geometry. To
extend the study, the behaviour at higher confine-
ments with different flaw configurations is inves-
tigated and a numerical study is performed using
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Monitoring points t=44
Monitoring
t=44.0133 t=46.0133
points
Fig. 17  Stage wise crack propagation observed for L45 under the confinement of 0.65 MPa for a BI and b BII geometries
ABAQUS by adopting XFEM based CZM model.
The numerical model could predict the tensile crack
and the possible formation of shear crack appear-
ance from the shear stress contour. The analysis was
also extended to show the influence of the frictional
effect between the flaw surfaces by varying the fric-
tion coefficients. The following conclusions are
observed based on the present study.
1. The ratio between the width of the specimen and
flaw length is found to have a significant influ-
ence on crack growth and specimen failure. No
shear cracks or extension cracks were observed
to be contributed at W/2a = 10. Whereas in the
case of W/2a = 6, shear cracks observed along
with tensile cracks eventually lead to pre-mature
failure. The mode of tensile crack is observed to
be changing from wing (T1) type to mixed ten-
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BI
t=45 t=48 t=54.018 t=54.022
(a)
BII
t=47.0133 t=54.835 t=54.8361
(b)
sile/shear (T3) type, since the flaw tip experi-
ences lateral confinement. Based on the observa-
tion, for biaxial compression, the specimen with
W/2a = 10 is found to be suitable for studying the
crack behaviour without getting affected by lat-
eral confinement.
2. The dominant wing mode tensile crack (T1) is
observed for the lower confinements in lower and
intermediate flaw angles. For a higher flaw angle
75°, the specimen generally fails by tensile crack
often fails in straight tensile type (T2) irrespec-
tive of material geometry. With increase in con-
finement, the presence of higher shear stress con-
tour at the flaw tip changes the tensile crack type
from T1 to mixed mode tensile/shear crack (T3)
irrespective of flaw angles.
3. The tensile crack growth for higher confinement
was observed to be lesser and the crack does
Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188 175

(Monitoring point - 1) (Monitoring point - 2)

(Monitoring point - 3) (Monitoring point - 4)

(Monitoring point - 5) (Monitoring point - 6)

(a)

Fig. 18  Horizontal stress (S11) and shear stress (S12) observed at monitoring points from 1 to 6 for a BI and b BII geometries under
0.65 MPa confinement Vol.: (0123456789)
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(Monitoring point - 1) (Monitoring point - 2)

(Monitoring point - 3) (Monitoring point - 4)

(Monitoring point - 5) (Monitoring point - 6)

(b)

Fig. 18  (continued)
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Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188 177
BI
Monitorin
t=55 t=56
g points
(a)
BII
Monitoring points t=58 t=59
(b)
Fig. 19  Stage wise crack propagation observed for L45 under the confinement of 1.24 MPa for a BI and b BII geometries
not fully propagate upto the material boundary.
Based on shear stress contour distribution from
numerical analysis, the direction of shear stress
region is found to be coplanar to the flaw surface
with increase in lateral confinement. At higher
confinements, the failure of the specimen is
mostly influenced by the presence of shear stress
region and mode of failure of failure observed
to change from typical axial splitting failure to
shearing mode failure.
4. The appearance of the shear crack is always prior
to the tensile crack for the narrow flaw configura-
tion at the lower flaw angles but appears together
after flaw angle reaches 45°. The peak stress is
observed after the tensile crack initiation and the
difference between these two stresses is relatively
higher at intermediate flaw angle. But with an
increase in confinement, the tensile crack initiates
much closer to the peak stress whereas the shear
crack is observed to be sooner. The growth in the
t=61.001 t=65.3114 t=65.3119
t=61.001 t=65.9415 t=65.9419
shear band indicates the possible propagation of a
shear crack with higher confinement.
5. The favorable flaw angle to initiate the crack
sooner is found to be closer to 45° for the lower
confinements. Similar to the uniaxial compres-
sion, the crack stresses decreases and reaches
a minimum value and later increases making
an undulant behaviour at the intermediate flaw
angles (30°—60°). But with increase in confine-
ments, the crack stresses at intermediate angle
the behaviour is relatively linear. Based on shear
force distribution monitored across the flaw sur-
faces, the shear force distribution is lower at 30°
flaw angle compared to 45° flaw angle. Hence,
the favorable flaw angle to initiate the crack
mostly shifts closer to 30° at the higher confine-
ments.
6. From the analysis, the effect of the flaw surface
friction is found to influence the tensile crack ini-
tiation and its propagation trajectory. Under zero
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(Monitoring point - 1) (Monitoring point - 2)

(Monitoring point - 3) (Monitoring point - 4)

(Monitoring point - 5) (Monitoring point - 6)

(a)

Fig. 20  Horizontal stress (S11) and shear stress (S12) observed at monitoring points from 1 to 6 for a BI and b BII geometries under
0.65 MPa confinement
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Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188 179

(Monitoring point - 1) (Monitoring point - 2)

(Monitoring point - 3) (Monitoring point - 4)

(Monitoring point - 5) (Monitoring point - 6)

(b)

Fig. 20  (continued)
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(a) Confining pressure = 3 MPa

L15c3000R L30c3000R L45c3000R L60c3000R L75c3000R

Smax

S12

Crack
type

(b) Confining pressure = 5 MPa

L15c5000R L30c5000R L45c5000R L60c5000R L75c5000R

Smax

S12

Crack
type

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◂Fig. 21  Failure pattern obtained in ABAQUS for single flaw
subjected to a 3 MPa and b 5 MPa confinements
confinement, the mode of tensile crack remains
T1 type, however with increase in friction, the
initiation becomes sharper and less curvilinear.
At higher friction, the mode shifts to T2 straight
tensile crack. When the lateral confinement is
applied, T1 mode remains and only at higher
friction, mode changes to T3 type. At higher
confinement level, T1 is observed only for zero
friction value and T3 type observed for higher
friction values. The study shows the reduction in
the propagated length of tensile crack is not only
affected by confinement but also by increase in
friction between the flaw surfaces.
Declarations 
Conflict of interest  The author wish to confirm that there are
no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication.
Appendix: Numerical validation of biaxial plane
stress condition
The rubber foam membrane is composed of closed
pores embedded in the Polyurethane (PU) matrix,
which can undergo full compressibility with signifi-
cantly lesser expansion in the lateral direction (Kim
Fig. 22  Crack initiation
stress and peak stress in
ABAQUS for single flaw
under all different confine-
ments
et al. 2019). When the specimen is subjected to load-
ing in one direction, it experiences deformation in the
other two directions, where the lateral deformation
is restrained using acrylic plated in one of the direc-
tions. Normally, the current setup without rubber
foam experiences a stress concentration at the inter-
face between the gypsum. When the rubber foam is
placed between the acrylic and gypsum, strain under-
gone by the specimen gets accumulated on the mem-
brane, hence no stress is transferred in that direction.
Hence, it is necessary to monitor how much stress is
observed on the acrylic sheet for achieving the plane
stress condition. However, there is a complication in
monitoring the setup under high confined air pres-
sure within the cell. Therefore, an additional numeri-
cal analysis is performed to check the effect of plane
stress state conditions using a rubber foam membrane.
The numerical model is simulated as a two-
dimensional problem for the biaxial setup of cross-
sectional view as shown in Fig.  25. The model con-
sists of a gypsum specimen with acrylic plates fixed
which is restrained in the lateral direction and rubber
foam is inserted between the acrylic and gypsum on
both sides. The length of Acrylic and Rubber foam
is 180  mm and their respective thickness is 26  mm
and 5 mm. For gypsum, the length of the material is
taken as 150 mm and its thickness 28 mm. A 4-node
bilinear plane strain quadrilateral element is adopted
for all three materials. The analysis is solved in
quasi-static loading by a reduced integration method
with an hourglass control technique. Based on mesh
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Fig. 23  Shear stress distribution observed across the flaw surface in ABAQUS for confinements, a 0.65 MPa b 1.24 MPa, c 3 MPa
and d 5 MPa under different flaw angles
optimization, a coarser mesh is chosen for PMMA
and a finer mesh for gypsum material and rubber
foam. The boundary condition of the model is shown
in Fig. 25c, where the direction of ‘x’ and ‘y’ move-
ment is restricted in PMMA. For gypsum material,
the top end of the specimen is fixed at the y-direction
and at the bottom end where loading is applied in the
y-direction. No boundary condition is given for rub-
ber foam material since the material is allowed for
compression during loading.
The material input parameter used in the numeri-
cal model is listed in Table 3. The constitutive model
assigned for gypsum is CZM with XFEM and for
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PMMA it is assumed as a linear elastic material. In
the case of rubber foam, the hyper foam material is
adopted which simulates highly compressible mate-
rial having large deformation characteristics (Briody
et  al. 2012; Kim et  al. 2019). The material property
for rubber foam is calibrated with uniaxial test data
from the experiment study, where their stress–strain
responses are compared (Fig.  26). The test is per-
formed on rubber foam membrane at a strain rate of
­10–3 ­s−1 (Kim et  al. 2019) upto 0.8% strain of axial
thickness of the material (Fig.  26). A tie constraint
(‘○’ symbol) is given at the interaction between
the PMMA and rubber foam replicating the glueing
Geotech Geol Eng (2023) 41:153–188 183

σc = 0 MPa
μ=0 μ=0.28 μ=0.5 μ=0.9

(a)

σc = 1.24 MPa
μ=0 μ=0.28 μ=0.5 μ=0.9

(b)

σc = 5 MPa
μ=0 μ=0.28 μ=0.5 μ=0.9

(c)

Fig. 24  Tensile crack mode for different friction coefficient value under different confinement levels a 0  MPa b 1.24  MPa and c
5 MPa

performance. A surface to surface contact type (‘□’
symbol) is assumed between gypsum and rubber
foam with a friction coefficient value of 0.68 based on
literature (Fig. 25d).
The result of the failure pattern obtained at numer-
ical analysis is shown in Fig. 27(a and b). In both the
analyses, the rubber foam membrane was observed to
be deforming on the interaction with gypsum and var-
iation in stress was observed in the gypsum specimen.

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Fig.  25  a Cross-section of the biaxial setup b Mesh geometry c Boundary condition adopted and d Interaction used between gyp-
sum, rubber foam and PMMA

Table 3  Material Material properties Gypsum PMMA Open-cell rubber foam

parameters adopted in the
numerical model Young’s modulus (GPa) 1.037 2.9a Uniaxial test data from
the experiment
Poisson’s ratio 0.39 0.44a
Density (kg/m3) 1550 1114.79 902.64
Tensile stress for mode I (MPa) 1.087 – –
Shear stress due to mode II (MPa) 1.560 – –
Relative displacement under mixed- 8 – –
mode (µm)
a
Penalty stiffness (GPa/m) 1.04 × ­102 – –
 Lee and Jeon (2011)

Fig.  26  a Open cell rubber

foam used for performing
uniaxial loading test and b
Experimentally and numeri-
cally obtained stress versus
strain plot obtained for
uniaxial loading test

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The stress distribution of PMMA is monitored on
both left and right of the specimen and the variation
of stress along with the height of PMMA is in Fig. 28.
The plot shows the stress in the x-direction that
is exhibited at the acrylic sheet for both the adopted
confinements. The stress is plotted with respect to
nodal points observed along the vertical direction of
the PMMA material. From the plot, it can be noted
that the maximum stress value of 1.37  kPa acting
at acrylic is significantly lower than the confine-
ment applied 1.24 MPa. Hence, it is evident that the
adopted rubber foam can absorb the stress that is

Fig. 27  Final failure pat-

tern obtained under two dif-
ferent confinement loadings
a 0.65 MPa and b 1.25 MPa

Fig.  28  a Stress observed in ‘x direction’ on acrylic from rubber foam membrane for 0.65 MPa and 1.25 MPa on b left side and c
right side of PMMA

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exhibited in the third direction of the specimen dur-
ing biaxial loading. Therefore the proposed setup
relatively achieves its plane stress state condition in
the present study.
See Figs. 25, 26, 27 and 28 and Table 3.
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