Fatigue susceptibility of marble

The present paper investigates the slow crack growth behavior, commonly referred to as fatigue susceptibility, of various marble types with different microstructural characteristics. The fatigue susceptibility was obtained from failure against loading rate diagrams. A low fatigue susceptibility was observed for the Italian and Chinese marble types composed of regular shaped, loosely packed crystals. The Georgia and Vermont marble types, with their irregular tightly packed grain structure, on the other hand, exhibit a high fatigue susceptibility.