Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. - Hydrology and Water Resources)--University of Arizona, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. - Hydrology and Water Resources)--University of Arizona. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-204).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-102). Also available on the World Wide Web.

<p>This dissertation studies the chemo-hygro-mechanical coupling involved in the process of crack propagation encountered both in natural and engineered context. Chemical processes are likely to affect the mechanical properties of geo-materials, resulting in possible weakening effect. The deformation and micro-cracking induced by material weakening in turn enhances the overall mass removal. In this study, several models within both elasticity and plasticity domain are developed for a better understanding of the enhanced crack propagation. A deformational plasticity model based on experimental observations is addressed. Rigid-plasticity models are applied to various boundary conditions. In the chemo-elasticity model, chemical dissolution is assumed to be a function of a comprehensive strain invariant. One-way coupling and two-way coupling models are discussed. In the two-way coupling model, volumetric strain coupling and deviatoric strain coupling are compared. A variety of loading modes are adopted to investigate the chemical enhancement of propagation of a single crack. The behavior of the material is either rigid-plastic, or elastic with the variable of mass removal enters the constitutive equation as a chemical strain. Comparison between the results from two models is presented and discussed.</p> / Dissertation