Initiation of tensile and mixed-mode fracture in sandstone

Initiation of failure under three-point bending was observed in sandstone specimens with and without a stress concentrator. Acoustic emission (AE) and electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) were used to quantify the fracture phenomena through AE locations and ESPI images of an intrinsic damage zone. To investigate mixed mode fracture, beam tests with off-center notches were studied as well. Before about 95% of peak load, the locations...