Mixed-mode fracture of compacted tailing soils. I: Fracture toughness

Mine tailings are man-made soils and leftovers from the mineral processing that share the similar geotechnical properties with natural soils. In areas with abundant mineral reserves and developed mining industries, tailings could be utilized as an alternative of natural soils for subgrade materials of pavement and adobes for building and construction constructions. The tailing soils are also the based materials for tailing dams. The compacted tailing soils might thus be subject to combined opening or shearing deformations that were unexplored in the current academic society. In this paper, a test configuration called asymmetric semi-circular bending (ASCB) was adopted to investigate the mixed I/II mode fracture properties of the compacted tailing soils. First, the load–displacement relationships of the SCB specimens for different notch depths and span ratios were presented. The mode I and II fracture toughness components were then calculated by referring to the theoretical solutions derived from classical fracture mechanics. The fracture envelope from mode I and II fracture toughness components were presented. Meanwhile, the mixity parameter was introduced to evaluate the mode mixity of the ASCB specimens. Finally, the crack initiation angles of the SCB specimens were measured through experimental tests and compared to the theoretical results obtained from generalized maximum tangential stress criterion (GMTS). Results show that the mode I fracture toughness component of the compacted tailing soils increased with the span ratio, while the mode II fracture toughness component increased with the decrease of span ratio. The mode mixity and crack initiation angles of the SCB specimens under mixed mode loading conditions increased with the decrease of span ratio.