Fracture mechanical behavior of red sandstone containing a single fissure and two parallel fissures after exposure to different high temperature treatments

A detailed understanding of the brittle deformation behavior of sandstone containing pre-existing flaws at elevated temperatures is a key concern in underground engineering. In this research, uniaxial compression tests were performed to evaluate the effect of high temperature treatments (300, 600 or 900 °C) on the strength, deformability and fracture coalescence behavior of a sandstone containing either a single fissure or two parallel fissures. All experiments focused on rectangular prismatic (80 × 160 × 30 mm) specimens of red sandstone. Constant strain rate experiments were performed on either: (1) specimens that contained a single 2 mm-wide fissure or (2) specimens that contained two 2 mm-wide parallel fissures. The specimens containing either one or two fissures were either left at room temperature (i.e., no heat treatment), or heat treated to 300, 600 or 900 °C prior to experimentation. The results demonstrated that, in all cases, the strength and stiffness of red sandstone was increased at 300 °C, before decreasing up to our maximum temperature of 900 °C. However, the peak strain at failure always showed an increase when the temperature was increased. The crack initiation, propagation and coalescence process were monitored during the deformation using both photographic monitoring and acoustic emission (AE) monitoring techniques. The monitoring results showed that the cracking process depended on both the fissure geometry and the heat treatment temperature. The potential mechanisms causing the differences in the mechanical behavior observed with increasing temperature are discussed, as is the influence of the single fissure and the two parallel fissures on the crack evolution process. These results are important and valuable to understand the fracture mechanism of rock engineering in deep underground mining excavations and nuclear waste depositories.