Abstract The heterogeneity of rock contributed by the geometry and properties of mineral constituent should be taken into account in the study of rock thermal cracking,which aids to understand the thermal cracking mechanism more objectively. This paper presents a coupled thermal-mechanical numerical model for rock failure based on meso-structure characterization. The model,based on thermoelastic theory and microscopic damage mechanics,employs digital image processing technologies to identify mineral grains and characterize their geometries in order to consider the effect of real meso-structure of rock. Taking granite for example,mechanical behaviors and fracturing process of granite under combined thermal and compressive loading condition are investigated. The results show that the temperature has a great influence on rock properties and damage evolution. The initiations of the cracks induced by thermal stress locate at the boundaries between minerals;and then the cracks propagate along the boundaries. Local cracks may be closed to form a polygon. The simulated results are in agreement with the experimental results,which validates the model. It provides a new tool to study the mechanism of rock thermal fracturing at meso-scale level.
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Received: 02 June 2011
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