Damage Characteristics of Thermally Deteriorated Carbonate Rocks: A Review

Abstract

This review paper summarizes the recent and past experimental findings to evaluate the damage characteristics of carbonate rocks subjected to thermal treatment (20–1500 °C). The outcomes of published studies show that the degree of thermal damage in the post-heated carbonate rocks is attributed to their rock fabric, microstructural patterns, mineral composition, texture, grain cementations, particle orientations, and grain contact surface area. The expressive variations in the engineering properties of these rocks subjected to the temperature (>500 °C) are the results of chemical processes (hydration, dehydration, deionization, melting, mineral phase transformation, etc.), intercrystalline and intergranular thermal cracking, the separation between cemented particles, removal of bonding agents, and internal defects. Thermally deteriorated carbonate rocks experience a significant reduction in their fracture toughness, static–dynamic strength, static–dynamic elastic moduli, wave velocities, and thermal transport properties, whereas their porous network properties appreciate with the temperature. The stress–strain curves illustrate that post-heated carbonate rocks show brittleness below a temperature of 400 °C, brittle–ductile transformation at a temperature range of 400 to 500 °C, and ductile behavior beyond this critical temperature. The aspects discussed in this review comprehensively describe the damage mechanism of thermally exploited carbonate rocks that can be used as a reference in rock mass classification, sub-surface investigation, and geotechnical site characterization.