Surface deformation of westerly granite during creep

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Abstract
Holographic interferometry has been used to observe the surface deformation of Westerly granite during creep experiments at 50 MPa (500 bars) confining pressure. Interference fringes on the holograms produced by this technique constitute contour maps of the sample surface shape change between exposures. Several distinctive characteristics of the surface shape change have been observed. In general, surface deformation during primary and secondary creep, while highly inhomogeneous, is distributed fairly uniformly. No large scale pattern is seen in the surface shape changes. At approximately the onset of tertiary creep, surface displacements become more locallized. Eventually (∼85‐90% of time‐to‐failure) a distinct ridge is formed which exactly coincides with the location of the final fracture.

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