Abstract: For a long time, geomechanicians have used scratch tests to characterize the compressive behavior and hardness of rocks. In recent years, this test has regained popularity in the field of mechanics, especially after a ...

Abstract: In the standard fracture test specimens, the crack-parallel normal stress is negligible. However, its effect can be strong, as revealed by a new type of experiment, briefly named the gap test. It consists of a simple ...