... fractures, generally been considered a result of tensile failure. Yet, several authors have expressed that this may not always be true (e.g. Paulding 1968, Lockner&Byerlee 1977, Solberg et al. 1977, Roegiers & Detournay 1988) and fracturing could be a result of shearing. In this paper, the results...

..., a combination of shear and tensile failure or only shear failure, depending on the stress state and ratio of tensile to shear strength of the rock. The numerical model used was validated by replicating core discing occurrence and disk thicknesses observed by Obert and Stephenson (1965) under controlled...