Heat induced fracturing of rock in an existing uniaxial stress field

The thermal fracturing of rock has been the object of several research projects, notably for initial rock breakage in mining (4) as well as crushing (8). In addition, the process has been studied carefully in regards to the storage of radioactive waste underground where rock fracturing could lead to a loss of radioactivity confinement. The Stripa Project, a project concerning large scale testing of procedures for underground storage of nuclear waste, probably has dealt most thoroughly with this subject by theoretical studies and in-situ heater testing in an attempt to describe the thermal failure process in rock (3). This project was designed to test the agreement between theoretical and actual rock fracture times of a rock block loaded with a physical as well as a thermal load. Laboratory testing consisted of physically loading center-drilled cubes of rock, 0.3 m on a side, uniaxially from 0 to 25 MPa. These were then thermally loaded with a nominal 3.7 kW (factory rating) cylindrical heater until failure occurred. This time to failure was recorded for comparison with a direct mathematical and a finite element solution. For both cases, calculations were performed at specific time-steps and an estimated failure time calculated from the compiled results