Abstract
To investigate the mechanisms involved during semi-brittle flow, we
deformed Carrara marble over a confining pressure (Pc)
range of 10-300 MPa and room temperature to ≈10% strain. We apply
triaxial loading to intact Carrara marble and collect mechanical,
ultrasound pulsing, and acoustic emission (AE) data during
pressurization and deformation stages. The pulsing and AE waveforms are
recorded using a pair of piezoelectric sensors. At lower
Pc, microcracking is the dominant deformation mechanism,
whereas at higher Pc, crystal-plastic mechanisms such as
twinning and dislocation glide are favored. These changes in the
activity of defect populations are manifested in changes in mechanical
properties, velocity variations, and AE characteristics. Samples at
higher Pc exhibit higher strength and require more work
for fault-development. Transition from localized faulting to distributed
barreling is observed between 50 and 100 MPa Pc. We
track precise velocity variations from the pulsing waveforms using
correlation-based methods. During the pressurization stage, the velocity
increases logarithmically with Pc between 0-100 MPa,
followed by a linear increase at higher pressures. During the
deformation stage, the compressional wave velocity initially increases
before the yield point due to closing of crevices, and then decreases
exponentially after the yield point. The rate of this velocity decay is
smaller as Pc increases, owing to reduced microcracking
with very little change at Pc ≥ 200 MPa. AE data show
that individual defect types emit characteristic patterns. Twinning
produces repetitive patterns of low amplitude, short signals localized
in frequency space whereas microcracks are more energetic, emit over a
much broader frequency range, and show more variation in signal shape
and duration. The AE spectra shift from ≈ 500 kHz to ≈15 MHz mean
frequency as Pc increases, which is associated with
increasing twinning activity. This acoustic data agree with
microstructural observations of microcracks and crystal-plastic
deformation in the samples. By joint-analyzing the stress-strain and
velocity evolutions with AE observations, we obtain detailed changes in
the micro-mechanisms accommodating strain in the Carrara marble and
constrain the deformation modes as it goes through the brittle-plastic
transition.