An experimental study on mechanical properties and fracturing characteristics of granite under high-temperature heating and liquid nitrogen cooling cyclic treatment

Liquid nitrogen (LN2) fracturing is a promising technology for efficient development of hot dry rock reservoir geothermal resources. To investigate the cracking mechanism of LN2 on high-temperature granite, heating and LN2 cooling cyclic treatment were applied to granite samples. Based on Brazilian splitting test, and different methods were employed to describe the crack propagation and failure mechanism, including acoustic emission monitoring, laser profile scanning, and scanning electron microscopy. The results demonstrate that heating and LN2 cooling cyclic treatment deteriorates the mechanical properties of granite. Specifically, after 20 cycles, the average P-wave velocity of the samples decreases by 34%, with the amplitude of the waveform decreasing from 130 dB to 50 dB. Moreover, the uniformity and integrity of the waveform worsen after cyclic treatment. The tensile strength, peak strain, and brittleness index of granite samples decrease with cycle numbers. From 3 to 20 cycles, the absorbed energy of the samples reduces by 53%, with thermal damage reducing the energy storage limit. The cyclic cooling treatment of LN2 increases the surface roughness and width of crack of the samples, resulting in obvious plastic failure at both ends of the samples. Furthermore, the height parameter Sa and area ratio Sdr of the fracture surface increase by 53.8% and 69.5%, respectively, as the number of cycles increase from 3 to 20. Additionally, the fractal dimension of the granite samples increases from 2.155 to 2.181, indicating an increase in the complexity of the cross-section. Following heating and LN2 cooling cyclic treatment, the failure mode of granite changes from vertical splitting to shear failure, with decreased brittleness and increased plasticity and ductility.