TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolution of Wear and Friction Along Experimental Faults
AU - Boneh, Y.
AU - Chang, J. C.
AU - Lockner, D. A.
AU - Reches, Z.
N1 - Funding Information:
We benefitted from help and advice of Andrew Madden and Xiaofeng Chen, University of Oklahoma. We had fruitful discussions with Emily Brodsky, UC Santa Cruz; Chris Scholz, Lamont-Doherty Institute; Amir Sagy, Israel Geological Survey; Einat Aharonov and Shalev Siman-Tov, the Hebrew University. Eric Ferre of Southern Illinois University kindly provided the Karoo gabbro sample. The manuscript was greatly improved by the constructive comments of Chris Scholz and an anonymous reviewer. The study was supported by the NSF, Geosciences, Equipment and Facilities, Grant No. 0732715, and partial support of NSF, Geosciences, Geophysics, Grant No. 1045414, and ConocoPhillips Foundation grant.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Springer Basel.
PY - 2014/11/6
Y1 - 2014/11/6
N2 - We investigate the evolution of wear and friction along experimental faults composed of solid rock blocks. This evolution is analyzed through shear experiments along five rock types, and the experiments were conducted in a rotary apparatus at slip velocities of 0.002–0.97 m/s, slip distances from a few millimeters to tens of meters, and normal stress of 0.25–6.9 MPa. The wear and friction measurements and fault surface observations revealed three evolution phases: A) An initial stage (slip distances <50 mm) of wear by failure of isolated asperities associated with roughening of the fault surface; B) a running-in stage of slip distances of 1–3 m with intense wear-rate, failure of many asperities, and simultaneous reduction of the friction coefficient and wear-rate; and C) a steady-state stage that initiates when the fault surface is covered by a gouge layer, and during which both wear-rate and friction coefficient maintain quasi-constant, low levels. While these evolution stages are clearly recognizable for experimental faults made from bare rock blocks, our analysis suggests that natural faults “bypass” the first two stages and slip at gouge-controlled steady-state conditions.
AB - We investigate the evolution of wear and friction along experimental faults composed of solid rock blocks. This evolution is analyzed through shear experiments along five rock types, and the experiments were conducted in a rotary apparatus at slip velocities of 0.002–0.97 m/s, slip distances from a few millimeters to tens of meters, and normal stress of 0.25–6.9 MPa. The wear and friction measurements and fault surface observations revealed three evolution phases: A) An initial stage (slip distances <50 mm) of wear by failure of isolated asperities associated with roughening of the fault surface; B) a running-in stage of slip distances of 1–3 m with intense wear-rate, failure of many asperities, and simultaneous reduction of the friction coefficient and wear-rate; and C) a steady-state stage that initiates when the fault surface is covered by a gouge layer, and during which both wear-rate and friction coefficient maintain quasi-constant, low levels. While these evolution stages are clearly recognizable for experimental faults made from bare rock blocks, our analysis suggests that natural faults “bypass” the first two stages and slip at gouge-controlled steady-state conditions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84911453380&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00024-014-0801-3
DO - 10.1007/s00024-014-0801-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84911453380
SN - 0033-4553
VL - 171
SP - 3125
EP - 3141
JO - Pure and Applied Geophysics
JF - Pure and Applied Geophysics
IS - 11
ER -