Evolution of contact area and aperture during the shearing process of natural rock fractures

The role of surface geometry and its evolution during shearing process on the hydromechanical behaviour of rock discontinuities has long remained an open question for geologist. During the shearing process, only a fraction of discontinuity is in contact and the actual stresses on these contacts are considerably greater than nominal stresses. However, measuring the contact area during shearing process has been a significant experimental challenge...