The influence of microwave treatment on the mode I fracture toughness of granite

Abstract

Microwave assisted mechanical rock breaking is a hybrid rock breaking method that combines microwave heating and mechanical rock breaking technologies and is proven to have potential applications in mineral processing, mining, and geotechnical engineering. It is, thus, important to understand the effect of microwave-induced damage on rock fracture characteristics. In this study, granite specimens of the Cracked Straight Through Brazilian Disc (CSTBD) were used to carry out the mode I fracture test of the samples irradiated by microwave for different time and thermal cycles. The results showed that the heating rate of the surface temperature of granite is about 1 °C/s, under microwave power of 0.9 kW. When the heating time exceeds the 60 s and after 3 cycles, the fracture toughness of the granite hardly changes with the heating time and cycles. Before 100 °C, the fracture toughness and fracture energy of granite decrease by about 40% with the increase of temperature. Under microwave irradiation, the medium absorber (biotite) in granite is heated and expanded, which results in thermal damage to the rock. Moreover, the polar materials in fluid inclusions move more violently than under conventional heat conduction heating, resulting in a lower decrepitation temperature of the inclusions than under conventional heating and decrepitation degree is more severe, which further leads to an increase in the density of microcracks in mineral crystal and a significant decrease in fracture toughness. When the surface temperature is 300 °C, the bending degree of the crack increases and deviates from the straight line obviously.