Abstract
Various geotechnical experiments have used gypsum-cemented analog geotechnical materials. However, this material needs a long curing time, and the target strength is not easy to control. Therefore, this research adopted microwave heating as the curing method for this kind of material. Objectively, the authors investigated the variations in the material strength versus heating power and heating time. On this basis, we clarified the influence mechanism of microwaves on the strength of analog materials by analyzing material temperature, moisture content, and microstructure, which eventually led to an experimental control method for rapid strengthening of microwave field-controlled gypsum-cemented analog materials. Consequently, we drew the following conclusions. The stable strength of the material under high-power microwave curing was much lower than that under natural curing, while the material strength under low-power microwave curing was the closest to the material under natural curing.
Highlights
China has a huge amount of coal mining, which often causes adverse effects such as land destruction [1], environmental pollution [2,3], surface subsidence [4,5] and slope instability [6]
The variations in physical and mechanical properties, composition, and microstructure of analog materials cured under different microwave conditions, temperature, moisture content, and uniaxial compressive strength were measured and recorded immediately after each experiment
The hydration reaction of the cement was the main reason for the formation of stable strength cemented analog materials
Summary
China has a huge amount of coal mining, which often causes adverse effects such as land destruction [1], environmental pollution [2,3], surface subsidence [4,5] and slope instability [6]. Analog physical simulation experiments are often used in the study of co-extraction of coal and gas [12]. Our experiments confirmed that gypsum-cemented analog materials generally need to be cured for more than 20 days to reach the stable strength designed by the investigation [19,20]. This article took gypsum-cemented analog simulation materials as the research object and used the same proportion scheme to study the relationship between the uniaxial compressive strength of gypsum-cemented analog materials and the microwave curing power and time. The curing method that takes the least time to reach the design strength of gypsum-cemented material under microwave irradiation was determined, which provided a scientific basis for shortening the time of gypsum-cemented analog physical experiments
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