Failure mechanism of hot dry rock under the coupling effect of thermal cycling and direct shear loading path

Abstract

Inducing shear failure in reservoir rocks is a critical strategy for enhancing hot dry rock resource exploitation, as it promotes the development of an extensive fracture network. In this study, granite was subjected to direct shear tests under three distinct temperatures and five thermal cycling treatments. Utilizing acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) techniques, the shear failure traits and the evolutionary patterns of cracks in granite under diverse thermal cycling treatments were probed. Experimental results reveal that the direct shear strength of granite initially decreases, subsequently rebounds with increasing thermal cycles, and exhibits a steady decrease with temperature increase. Effects of thermal shock provoke a surge in AE counts and energy during the initial half of the shearing process, steering the failure mode of the samples from brittle to plastic. Furthermore, the macro crack morphology changes from a singular shear crack to a pair of parallel shear cracks, becoming intricately complex at elevated temperatures (600 °C). Additionally, the initiation of the main shear crack in granite consistently manifests a mixed tensile-shear failure, with the proportion of shear action displaying a positive correlation with temperature. In contrast, the proximal secondary cracks are purely tension-initiated. Finally, a competitive mechanism between rock strengthening and weakening induced by thermal cycles treatment was proposed to explain the remarkable rebound in direct shear strength following thermal cycling treatment. The current work provides insights for the mechanism of shear failure in rocks under different thermal cycling conditions in geothermal reservoir stimulation.