TY - JOUR A1 - Zabler, S. A1 - Rack, A. A1 - Manke, I. A1 - Thermann, K. A1 - Tiedemann, J. A1 - Harthill, N. A1 - Riesemeier, Heinrich T1 - High-resolution tomography of cracks, voids and micro-structure in greywacke and limestone N2 - Rocks are commonly very heterogeneous materials. Randomly distributed micro-flaws inside the rock are believed to initiate tensile cracks from which shear fractures develop and coalescence through en echelon interactions leads to fracture. In this paper, we describe the results of applying high-resolution X-ray tomography to samples of greywacke and limestone experimentally deformed under unconfined axial shortening at various loads equivalent to different fractions of the sample strength. Mineral grains, pores, micro-cracks and other voids were imaged with a resolution of 10 µm. 3D image analysis enabled us to monitor the initial state of the samples and the changes in them due to compression. Crack morphology is characterized and compared to the micro-structure of the sample before and after deformation. In the greywacke, formation of a macro-crack ~10° oblique to the stress direction is observed. It initiated in fine intergranular material at the top tip of the sample and is composed of tensile fractures connected by wing cracks. None of the voids defined in the initial state fractured, and the crack is interpreted to have started either as a micro-crack which was smaller than the resolution of the tomography, or, as a completely new crack. In the limestone, cracks are observed to initiate in features that are too small to be imaged by the tomography, or also in newly created cracks. KW - Rock porosity KW - Crack formation KW - X-ray imaging KW - Micro-tomography KW - 3D image analysis PY - 2008 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsg.2008.03.002 SN - 0191-8141 SN - 1873-1201 VL - 30 IS - 7 SP - 876 EP - 887 PB - Pergamon Press CY - Oxford AN - OPUS4-18566 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -