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Abstract The empirical rate‐ and state‐dependent friction law is widely used to explain the frictional resistance of rocks. However, the constitutive parameters vary with temperature and sliding velocity, preventing extrapolation of laboratory results to natural conditions. Here, we explain the frictional properties of natural gouge from the San Andreas Fault, Alpine Fault, and the Nankai Trough from room temperature to ∼300°C for a wide range of slip‐rates with constant constitutive parameters by invoking the competition between two healing mechanisms with different thermodynamic properties. A transition from velocity‐strengthening to velocity‐weakening at steady‐state can be attained either by decreasing the slip‐rate or by increasing temperature. Our study provides a framework to understand the physics underlying the slip‐rate and state dependence of friction and the dependence of frictional properties on ambient physical conditions.
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A Rate‐, State‐, and Temperature‐Dependent Friction Law With Competing Healing Mechanisms
Abstract The constitutive behavior of faults is central to many interconnected aspects of earthquake science, from fault dynamics to induced seismicity, to seismic hazards characterization. Yet, a friction law applicable to the range of temperatures found in the brittle crust and upper mantle is still missing. In particular, rocks often exhibit a transition from steady‐state velocity‐strengthening at room temperature to velocity‐weakening in warmer conditions that is poorly understood. Here, we investigate the effect of competing healing mechanisms on the evolution of frictional resistance in a physical model of rate‐, state‐, and temperature‐dependent friction. The yield strength for fault slip depends on the real area of contact, which is modulated by the competition between the growth and erosion of interfacial micro‐asperities. Incorporating multiple healing mechanisms and rock‐forming minerals with different thermodynamic properties allows a transition of the velocity‐ and temperature‐dependence of friction at steady‐state with varying temperatures. We explain the mechanical data for granite, pyroxene, amphibole, shale, and natural fault gouges with activation energies and stress power exponent for weakening of 10–50 kJ/mol and 55–150, respectively, compatible with subcritical crack growth and inter‐granular flow in the active slip zone. Activation energies for the time‐dependent healing process in the range 90–130 kJ/mol in dry conditions and 20–65 kJ/mol in wet conditions indicate the prominence of viscoelastic collapse of microasperities in the absence of water and of pressure‐solution creep, crack healing, and cementation when assisted by pore fluids.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1848192
- PAR ID:
- 10382488
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
- Volume:
- 127
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 2169-9313
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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