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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2007; v. 289; p. 7-17;
DOI: 10.1144/SP289.2
© 2007 Geological Society of London

Articles

Damage and localization: two key concepts in rock deformation studies

Y. Guéguen1 & P. Bésuelle2

1 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Laboratoire de Géologie, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris cedex 5, France
2 Laboratoire 3S-R, BP 53, F-38041 Grenoble cedex 9, France (e-mail: Pierre.Besuelle{at}hmg.inpg.fr)

In upper crustal conditions (the brittle field), rocks subjected to a load can experience a deterioration of physical and mechanical properties. This paper treats two conceptual approaches to model the deterioration that results from a crack distribution, whether the distribution is more or less diffuse or is strongly localized. The first part deals with possible ways to characterize diffuse microcracking (damage) to establish how the elastic response reflects the microcracking. This is of direct geophysical interest, as elastic wave velocities carry quantitative information on crack content. The second part summarizes two kinds of theory to predict the failure by crack propagation or strain localization, using either fracture mechanics or bifurcation theory. This is of direct geomechanical interest, as what is looked for is an interpretation of localized structures. The third part presents the complementarities between both concepts, damage and localization, to predict failure in rocks.