Open Access

PROCEEDINGS

Measuring the Tensile Strength Degradations of Mineral Grain Interfaces (MGIs) in the Granite After Thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) Coupling

Mengyi Li¹, Zhijun Wu^1,*

1 School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

* Corresponding Author: Zhijun Wu. Email:

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences 2023, 25(1), 1-2. https://doi.org/10.32604/icces.2023.09829

Abstract

Buried in depth for decades of years, granite in the deep geological repository will be subjected to extremely complex effects of thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) treatment, and the tensile strengths of mineral grain interfaces (MGIs) are inevitably impacted by the THM treatment [1, 2]. Originated by the failure modes of granite after THM treatment, the tensile strength of MGI plays an important role in determining the macro mechanical properties of THM-treated granite [3, 4]. However, the accurate characterization of the tensile strength degradations of MGIs with THM treatment is still lacking. In this study, the varied tensile strengths of MGIs, including the interfaces of quartz (q-q), feldspar (f-f) and the interfaces between quartz and feldspar (q-f) in the granite after different THM treatments were first directly measured based on a selfdeveloped single-MGI mechanical test system. The degradations of tensile strengths of different MGIs were distinguished, which was the most obvious in q-f, followed by f-f and then q-q. The tensile strength degradation models of the granite related to the THM treatments were proposed based on the results of the experiment. The findings in this study can provide key references for estimating the THM effects on the meso and macro mechanical properties of granites.

---

Keywords

---