Abstract Microwave radiation can be used to pre-damage hard rock to reduce the cost of drilling and excavation typically required in tunneling, mining, and deep Earth energy recovery. A 3D damage-based, electromagnetic-thermo-mechanical coupled model to simulate damage and fracturing of rock under microwave radiation is proposed in this manuscript. The model is first validated against experimental test and then used to simulate the damage and fracturing of rock under microwave radiation at various microwave power levels and radiation times. The simulations show that the distribution of temperature in the rock sample is extremely non-uniform, resulting in high thermal gradients that can damage and/or fracture the rock sample. Higher power levels and longer durations impart more damage. The simulations also show, under the same microwave radiation conditions, that the resultant sample temperature, and therefore damage, is higher in samples with high ratios of compressive to tensile strength. A good agreement between the modeling and experimental results suggests that the model can be used to assist in the management and optimization of mineral mining, oil and gas recovery, and deep Earth energy recovery.

中文翻译：

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硬岩的微波辅助损伤和压裂及其对有效矿产资源回收的影响

摘要 微波辐射可用于对硬岩进行预损伤，以降低隧道、采矿和深部地球能量回收通常所需的钻孔和挖掘成本。本手稿提出了一种基于 3D 损伤的电磁-热-机械耦合模型，用于模拟微波辐射下岩石的损伤和破裂。该模型首先通过实验验证，然后用于模拟在不同微波功率水平和辐射时间的微波辐射下岩石的损坏和破裂。模拟表明，岩石样品中的温度分布极不均匀，导致高热梯度，可能损坏和/或破裂岩石样品。更高的功率水平和更长的持续时间会带来更多的伤害。模拟还表明，在相同的微波辐射条件下，压缩强度与拉伸强度之比高的样品所产生的样品温度更高，因此损坏也更高。建模与实验结果之间的良好一致性表明，该模型可用于协助矿产开采、油气回收和地球深层能量回收的管理和优化。