Fracture Mechanics

Prof. R.W. Schlische. Classification and description of fractures; mechanisms of fracture formation and growth; geologic significance of fractures.

Syllabus

Format: Readings from the literature and textbook on fracture mechanics; informal discussion of reading assignments every two weeks.

Basis for grade: Discussions, 30%; term paper, 40%; presentation of term paper.

Textbook: Engelder, T., Fischer, M.P., and Gross, M.R., 1993, Geological aspects of fracture mechanics: Short Course Manual, Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, Boston, Massachusetts.

Presentation: Presentations will last approximately one hour. The presentation will take the form of a lecture given to an advanced undergraduate class or graduate class (i.e., expect questions from the "students"). The presenter is responsible for compiling reading lists (which should be comprehensive and include recent papers not cited in Engelder et al., 1993), and preparing lecture notes, handouts, and overheads. I will grade all of these, as well as the actual presentation itself. Although the topics for the presentation and term paper are related, the emphasis for each will be somewhat different. The presentation should aim for comprehensiveness, and provide a thorough review of the topic. You may wish to expend 50-75% of your allotted time on the comprehensive treatment. The balance of the time is to be spent on the topic developed in your term paper.

Term Paper: The length of the term paper should be in the range of 10-20 pages (typed and double-spaced, excluding references, figures, and figure captions). The content of the term paper should fit into the topics outlined above, but the term paper should also be more than a simple summary of the relevant chapters in the Engelder et al. (1993) book. The term paper should not be a comprehensive treatment of the subject (remember that the comprehensive aspects will be covered in your "lectures"). Rather, the term paper should explore at length a particular aspect of the topic, for example, those aspects that are not treated in depth in the Engelder et al. (1993) chapters.

Resources: The bibliography of the Engelder et al. (1993) is an excellent compilation of the fracture literature. I have a large number of papers on fractures within my own reprint collection, which is available over the computer network. Feel free to borrow or xerox any of these papers. For very recent papers, you should consult the Bibliography and Index of Geology and/or scan the contents of Journal of Structural Geology, Tectonophysics, and International Journal of Rock Mechanics, Mining Science, and Geomechanical Abstracts.

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