Analysis of Microwave Thermal Stress Fracture Characteristics and Size Effect of Sandstone under Microwave Heating

Feng Gao, Yan Shao and Keping Zhou
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Feng Gao: School of Resource and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Yan Shao: School of Resource and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Keping Zhou: School of Resource and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-16

Abstract: Microwave-induced rock fracture is one of the promising approaches of achieving non-blasting continuous mining and assisted mechanical rock breaking. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the temperature effect and fracture characteristics of rocks of different sizes under microwave heating; however, there are few studies in this field. Microwave heating of φ 50 × 100 mm, φ 50 × 50 mm, and φ 50 × 25 mm sandstone samples with different heating powers and times was performed to measure the temperature of the sample, the microwave energy absorbed, the mass, and the P-wave velocity before and after heating. The results show suppress that (i) under the same heating conditions, the mass difference and the temperature increase range of φ 50 × 100 mm and φ 50 × 50 mm samples are larger than that of the φ 50 × 25 mm samples; (ii) the wave velocity change rate and the damage factor of samples increase with the increase of heating power and time; (iii) different size specimens have different crack- propagation modes. The main crack of φ 50 × 100 mm specimens usually starts from the middle of the height of the specimen; for the φ 50 × 50 mm specimens, it usually starts from the middle or bottom-end surface of the specimen height; the main crack of φ 50 × 25 mm specimens starts from the vertical surface of the specimen. With an increase in the heating time, the length and width of the main crack continuously increase and secondary cracks are generated. The fracture mode of the sample is also related to the size of the sample. The fracture mode can be divided into three parts: melt fracture, thermal-expansion fracture, and secondary thermal-expansion fracture. The relationship between the sample temperature and the absorbed microwave energy is approximately linear.

Keywords: microwave heating; size effect; thermal stress fracture; microwave energy; temperature; sandstone (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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