International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

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International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrmms

Computational modelling of microwave-induced fractures in igneous rocks

using phase field method
Zicheng Wang a, b, Chunshun Zhang a, *
a
School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study introduced a simplified thermodynamic model based on the regularized phase field method for
Microwave simulating the thermally induced fractures of rocks pretreated by microwave. A thermo-mechanical model
Phase field method comprises three main parts developed to evaluate the fractures: the heat generation of the rock specimen is
Rock breaking
determined via the heat balance equation; the calculation of thermally induced stress is performed in the second
Multiphysics coupling
part by taking into account the thermal stress due to temperature change; the third part calculates the fracture
induced by microwave heating using the phase field equation. Combining these three parts enables simulations of
rock fractures due to thermally induced stress. The first simulation is the quenching test of ceramics to validate
the robustness of the phase field method in modelling the thermo-mechanical fracture. Then, examples of
microwave-induced fracture are presented and discussed in comparison with microwave test results. A good
agreement is achieved from the results of numerical analysis and experiments, which proves the feasibility of the
proposed thermo-mechanical coupling fracture (phase field) model for the simulation of thermal-mechanical
fractures. It is further found that the power level is crucial in influencing the fractures given the same energy
input. More specifically, a higher power level leads to an increased non-uniformity of a thermal gradient, which,
as a result, leads to a higher stress gradient and more fractures generated eventually. Furthermore, the energy
utilization ratio also benefits under a more intensive microwave power level. The developed model quantita­
tively enriches the understanding of fractures produced by microwave irradiation and advances the application
of the microwave-assisted rock breakage technique in industry and academics.

thermally induced stress in the rock. The thermally induced stress that
exceeds the mechanical strength of the rock-like materials to achieve
1. Introduction
mechanical degradation and fracturing of the rock. This results in
improved rock fragmentation and reduced tool wear.
Rock breaking is an important issue to address in mining, tunnelling
Up to date, many small-scale laboratory experiments have been
engineering, deep geothermal energy exploration, coal bed methane,
carried out to determine the influence of microwave irradiation on the
and oil exploration. As technology has progressed, a range of mechanical
physical and mechanical properties of various rocks with high abra­
equipment has been developed and is widely used in rock-breaking
siveness and strength.14–16 For the facilities of microwave heating, a
applications due to its high level of automation and reliability. How­
microwave antenna with an open-ended antenna has been designed, and
ever, when faced with extremely hard rock, these mechanical excavators
its thermal and fracture performance has been evaluated.17–19 Due to the
face the major challenges of low forward speed and high tool wear.3–5 In
different composition of rocks, the permittivity and thermal properties
recent decades, research on improving the efficiency of mechanical rock
of different minerals have been characterized. Mineralogy has been
fracturing and minimizing tool wear has received great attention from
shown to have the most critical effect under microwave exposure, fol­
numerous academics, using various technologies such as laser,5–7 water
lowed by the crystal structure, iron content and moisture content.20,21
jet,8–10 microwave,11–13 among which microwave is a viable auxiliary
The fracturing mechanisms of microwave treatment in water-bearing
treatment for mechanical rock fracturing due to its intense penetration
sandstones have also been investigated. It was observed that a rela­
power, volumetric heating and thermal degradation of rock. Under the
tively low porosity, high moisture content and large microwave power
influence of microwave energy, volumetric thermal expansion generates

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chunshun.zhang@whu.edu.cn (C. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2024.105719
Received 15 August 2023; Received in revised form 23 January 2024; Accepted 17 March 2024
Available online 23 March 2024
1365-1609/© 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Wang and C. Zhang International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

Nomenclatures temperature
L the Lagrangian
∇ the gradient operator, i.e. ∇φ = (φ,x , φ,y , φ,z )T gc the critical energy release rate
E the electric field intensity ψ0 the elastic strain energy density
B the magnetic flux density ε the total strain
H the magnetic intensity εθ the thermal expansion strain
J the conduction current density αθ the coefficient of thermal expansion
DE the electric displacement or flux density І the identity vector
ρE the electric change density d the phase field variable describing the fracture and failure
μr the relative magnetic permeability of material
σE the electrical conductivity γ(d; ∇d) the crack surface density
ε0 the value of permittivity in a vacuum ∇d the gradient of phase field variable
μ0 the magnetic permeability in a vacuum lc the length scale parameter
εr the complex dielectric constant which determines a αd the crack geometry function
material’s capability to absorb the energy of σ Cauchy stress
electromagnetic field ψ 0 (ε, θ, d) undamaged strain energy density function
C0 the fourth order flexibility tensor of the material
ε″ the loss factor
E0 the fourth order stiffness tensor of the material
c0 the speed of light in vacuum
σ the effective stress tensor
j an imaginary number
the effective energy release rate
the angular frequency
H
ω
f the frequency of the electromagnetic wave ω′(d) the derivative of the energy degradation function
k0 the free space wave number σ1 the maximum principal stress of the effective stress tensor
γ∗ the heat source σ
ρ the material density E0 Young’s modulus of material
c the specific heat capacity H n the previously calculated history variable in the n-th
k the thermal conductivity increment step
θ the temperature lch the Griffith or Irwin length characterizing the brittleness of
εe the elastic strain solid material
ta the time interval of calculation ft the tensile failure strength
Ω the domain of an arbitrary solid
Abbreviations
Rδ Euclidian space with δ dimensions AE Acoustic Emission
∂Ω the boundary of domain DDA Discontinuity Deformation Analysis
n the external normal unit vector of boundary LSM Lattice Spring Model
Γc the discrete crack of domain TBM Tunnelling Boring Machine
u(x, t) the displacement field FEM Finite Element Method
θ(x, t) the temperature field FDTD Finite Difference Time Domain
u the specified displacement XFEM Extended Finite Element Method
∂Ωu the boundary condition in the form of specified PDE Partial Differential Equation
displacement PFM Phase Field Method
t the specified traction FLAC Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continuum
∂Ωt the boundary condition in the form of specified traction EM Electromagnetic Wave
x the dependent vector governing position CTE Coefficient of Thermal Expansion
b body force PF-CZM Phase Field Cohesive Zone Method
r the volumetric heat source CWA Converged Waveguide Antenna
q the specified heat flux LEFM Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics
∂Ωq the boundary condition in the form of specified heat flux CZM Cohesive Zone Model
θ the specified temperature
∂Ωθ the boundary condition in the form of specified

level are conducive to the fracturing of water-bearing sandstones with
microwave exposure.22 In order to assess the crack evolution in gabbro
subjected to uniaxial stress after microwave heating, the acoustic
emission (AE) is applied. It was found that higher microwave power and
shorter exposure times better weaken the rock.23 Dynamic tests were
performed on rocks after microwave exposure to evaluate the evolution
of the weakened dynamic properties. Experimental results show that it
has great potential in hard rock mining, and a rapid reduction of dy­
namic strength and the corresponding hardness of rocks is obtained after
short-term microwave irradiation.24 Furthermore, the effect of
confinement pressure on crack propagation in microwave-treated rock
has been investigated, and it has been shown that confinement pressure
inhibits thermal crack initiation during microwave fracturing.25,26 In
addition, the rock was pretreated at a high-power level of 24 kW, fol­
lowed by a cutting test. Experimental results showed that pretreatment
with a high power level significantly decreases the applied force and
specific energy needed for cutting, with a wider fragment size
distributed.27
Based on the results of experimental surveys, computer modelling
has been employed to clarify the microwave heating mechanism further.
Techniques for calculating microwave exposed rocks are classified into
three major types: continuum-based, discontinuum-based, and hybrid
continuum-discontinuum. For continuum-based methods, COMSOL has
been implemented to predict microwave heating, heat transfer and
mechanical fields produced in rocks.28–31 Phase field methods have been
applied to predict 2D microscale microwave-induced fractures in rock

2
Z. Wang and C. Zhang
specimens using Voronoi schemes.32 Additionally, 2D models of
two-phase minerals have been constructed using FLAC to investigate the
effects of input microwave energy and mineral sizes in rock materials on
microwave-assisted rock fragmentation.33,34 To evaluate the process of
thermal fracturing of rocks under microwave exposure, a 2D plate
consisting of two different minerals was inserted into ANSYS.35 To
calculate the thermal stress and temperature evolution in the rock
caused by microwave energy, a thermal finite element model was con­
structed using ABAQUS.36 For discontinuity-based methods, Disconti­
nuity Deformation Analyses (DDA),37 Particle Flow Codes (PFC)38 and
LSM39 are used to simulate the formation of microwave-induced frac­
tures in the rock. The modelling indicates that fracture is majorly trig­
gered by the thermal mismatch due to the thermal gradient. In Rui et al.
(2023), the interaction of microwave irradiated rocks with TBM exca­
vators is studied. In the hybrid approach, stresses generated by micro­
wave in rock-like materials are explored by combined finite element
method (FEM) and finite difference time domain method (FDTD).40,41
Especially, the Finite Discrete Element Method (FDEM) has been
regarded as a powerful numerical method that has been widely used in
simulating fractures in geomaterials due to the advantage of high ac­
curacy in dealing with large deformation and the discontinuous defor­
mation occurring in the process of fracture. The author like to review
some critical publications by Zhou, Knight and Rougier42–44 on the
simulation work of FDEM in the field of geotechnical engineering and
rock mechanics for enhancing the understanding of numerical modelling
of rock-like materials.
Zhou et al.42 adopted a generalized formulation in FDEM to simulate
the anisotropic deformation in geomaterials, the developed 2D FDEM
framework combined unified hypo-hyper elastic approach with a mul­
tiplicative decomposition-based selective integration for a hybrid volu­
metric and shear analysis. Unlike the previous conventional
co-rotational theory, the shear and volumetric behavior, material elas­
ticity and plastic deformation in rock have been naturally implemented
into the finite element code. Therefore, the accuracy of discontinuous
behavior as well we the numerical locking in models have been properly
resolved. Due to a remarkable progress in rock fragmentation and
fractures, Knight et al.43 at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
implemented the FDEM theory in the package Hybrid Optimization
Software Suite (HOSS) as a multiphysics platform for simulating solid
fractures. Several newly developed algorithms have been implemented
to yield accurate results of material fractures to support pure mechanical
fractures, multiphysics-induced fractures in rock mechanics, oil and
mining industry. In order to improve the applicability, Zhou et al.44
performed a 3D FDEM analysis in of glass under impact loading, both the
concentric fractures and radial fractures are simulated and validated
with the experiments. A good agreement is shown in numerical models
and experimental observations, further enhance the effectiveness of
FDEM in simulating rock fractures.
Either a discontinuous (also known as discrete) or a continuous
approach can be used to numerically model the fracture of solids. The
former allows the displacement field to be discontinuous over the frac­
ture surfaces, while the latter has continuous displacements everywhere
but gradually reduced stresses to model the degradation process.
LEFM45,46 and the Cohesive Zone Model (CZM), proposed by Dugdale47
and Barenblatt,48 are the best known theories behind the discontinuous
approach. Essentially, LEFM and CZM are not self-contained in the sense
that they both require additional criteria to address when/where a crack
initiates, grows, how much it propagates and in which direction.
Moreover, for dynamic fracture, an auxiliary criterion is needed to
detect crack branching, see e.g. Belytschko et al.49 For the modelling of
crack growth, crack formation and complicated fracture networks, the
fracture phase field method (PFM) has given considerable emphasis in
previous studies.50–53 Compared to other computational techniques like
LEFM and CZM, the fracture phase field method does not rely on
inserting extra discontinuities.54,55 Instead, a scalar variable that smears
the fractures is employed to approach the crack profile. The principal
3
International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719
advance of the fracture phase field method is that fracture propagation
evolves with the associated partial differential equations (PDEs). Since
the surface is not explicitly traced, the fracture phase field method is
amenable to apply in the case of complex crack patterns.56,57 Hence, the
technique has been extensively studied recently in different problems
with complicated fractures, such as dynamic-induced crack,58,59 rupture
of composite materials,60 shear fracture,53,61,62 hydrogen-induced crack
initiation,63,64 hydraulic fracture,65,66 corrosive fracture,67,68 cyclic fa­
tigue failure,69,70 blasting failure,71 and so on. It has superior predictive
value, particularly for coupling multi-field fracture problems.61,63,72,73
One of the typical problems, i.e., microwave-induced fractures, is
also intrinsically multiphysics coupling, involving electromagnetic,
thermal, and mechanical fields. To the authors’ knowledge, few nu­
merical simulations have focused on addressing microwave-pretreated
fractures of laboratory-scale rock samples. This paper aims to justify
the applicability of PF-CZM in simulating microwave-induced fractures
in rocks. To consider the coupled multiphysics properties of microwave-
irradiated rock fragmentation, an electromagnetic-thermo-mechanical
(ETM) model has been established in this work to simulate
microwave-pretreated fracture formation. The phase field cohesive re­
gion method developed by Wu and Nguyen74 has been adopted in this
work due to its wide applicability in simulating brittle and quasi-brittle
failures in engineering materials. The arrangement of this work is per­
formed as follows: First of all, the governing equation of the developed
framework is performed in Section 2, followed by two numerical ex­
amples in Section 3 to verify the accuracy of the thermo-elastic phase
field cohesive zone method. The numerical results are shown and
compared with the corresponding experiments. Furthermore, the cor­
responding data analysis is presented in Section 4, and eventually, the
conclusions of the work as well as the recommended future work are
summarized in Section 5.
2. Mathematical model
In order to build up a coupling electromagnetic-thermo model, the
following assumptions are made:
1. Rock samples are assumed to be homogeneous materials.
2. During the pretreatment of the microwave, the mineral phase change
is excluded.
3. The microwave-induced crack in the rock sample is assumed to be a
brittle failure.
4. As the test data is rather limited, all physical and mechanical prop­
erties of rocks are considered as temperature-independent.
2.1. A 3D coupled electromagnetic-thermo model
2.1.1. Electromagnetic wave (EM) propagation
Maxwell equations are used to assess electromagnetic wave propa­
gation given the boundary conditions. For a time-harmonic problem, the
Maxwell equations are performed given in the following formulations75:
⎧
∂B
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ Faraday′s law of electromagnetic induction : ∇ × E = −
⎪ ∂t
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨ ∂D
Ampere′s law : ∇ × H = J +
E
(1)
⎪
⎪ ∂t
⎪
⎪
⎪ Gauss’ magnetic law : ∇⋅B = 0
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩
Gauss’ electric law : ∇⋅DE = ρE
where DE = ε0 εr E, B = μ0 μr Н, J = σE E, t is time, E is the electric field
intensity, DE is the electric displacement or flux density, H is the mag­
netic field intensity, B is the magnetic flux density, J is conduction
current density, and ρE is the electric change density, μr is the relative
magnetic permeability; and σE is the electrical conductivity; ε0 is the
Z. Wang and C. Zhang
Fig. 1. Diagram of any solid with a discontinuity on the surface under thermal shock loading. The cracks are regularized geometrically and described in terms of
phase fields.
value of permittivity in a vacuum; μ0 is the magnetic permeability in a
vacuum; εr is a complex dielectric constant which determines a mate­
rial’s capability to absorb the energy of electromagnetic field and ε″ is
the loss factor that governs the transition from electromagnetic energy
into thermal energy.
The Helmholtz vector equation is occupied to determine the elec­
tromagnetic field once the constitutive relations in Eq. (2) have been
replaced by those in Eq. (1):
( )
jσE
∇ × μ−r 1 (∇ × E) − k02 εr − E=0 (2)
ωε0
where c0 is the speed of light in vacuum, j is an imaginary number, ω =
2πf is the angular frequency, f is the frequency of the electromagnetic
wave, and k0 = ω/c0 is the free space wave number,
2.1.2. Thermal energy generation and transmission
According to Metaxas et al.,76 microwave serves a limited propaga­
tion depth into the rock material with such a large scale, therefore, the
thermal energy inside only exists near the rock surface in the scenario.
After the propagation of microwave, heat energy is generated and
transferred further inside rock. Moreover, the surrounding air transfers
heat energy generated by microwave irradiation via rock surface.
Therefore, this process involves thermal irradiation, thermal conduction
and thermal irradiation. The corresponding governing equations are as
follows:
The thermal conductivity equation controls heat transport treated by
microwave in rock77: cρ ∂∂θt − ∇⋅(k∇θ) = γ∗ (3)where γ∗ is the heat
source, cρ is the volumetric heat capacity, k is the heat conductivity, and
θ is the temperature.
As dielectric material is applied microwave, a part of microwave
energy is dissipated, which follows the following equation:
γ ∗ = 2π f ε0 ε″|E|2
The convective heat transfer boundary of the surface is taken into
account in the simulations and its convective heat transfer is directly
proportional to the temperature difference between the surface and the
environment:
q ⋅ n = − k∇θ ⋅ n = h(θs − θ∞ )
where h is the surface convective heat transfer coefficient, θs is the
International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719
surface temperature, and θ∞ is the ambient temperature.
2.2. A 2D thermo-mechanical coupled phase-field model
In this section, the basic aspects of the framework of the thermo-
mechanical phase field coupled with the cohesive zone model are out­
lined. Specifically, this method is derived using Wu and Nguyen’s
model74 as the basis, which lays the foundation for integrating the global
fracture phase field method with the consistent interface formula
derived from the classical cohesive zone model. Initiation and propa­
gation of fractures due to thermal expansion are assumed to be driven by
both the elastic strains εe and thermal strains εθ .
2.2.1. Variational form of a coupled thermo-elastic phase field method
In Fig. 1, the deformation and cracking of a thermo-elastic solid in a
generalized Euclidean space are considered in the period [0 − ta ]. A
domain Ω ∈ Rδ denoted by the corresponding boundary ∂Ω and its
external normal unit vector n contains the deformed solid. In the
domain, it is assumed that there is a crack Γc . The displacement is
expressed as u(x, t) and the temperature is described by θ(x, t). The
material points in solids are assessed by a dependent vector x to govern
the position. Furthermore, the prescribed displacement (u on ∂Ωu ) and
traction (t on ∂Ωt ) and the internal body force, b, are applied to the solid.
Specifically, the solid including a volumetric heat source r, external heat
flux (q on ∂Ωq ) and specified temperature (θ on ∂Ωθ ) are considered.
These boundary conditions meet the requirements as follows:
∂Ωt ∪ ∂Ωu = ∂Ω, ∂Ωt ∩ ∂Ωu = ∅
(6)
∂Ωq ∪ ∂Ωθ = ∂Ω, ∂Ωq ∩ ∂Ωθ = ∅
A saddle-point problem that describes the thermally induced fracture
considering the inertia effect is measured by the development of a
variational fracture method57:
(4) ∫ ta
S[u, u̇, θ, Γc ] = L [u, u̇, θ, Γc ]dt (7)
0
where the Lagrangian L is defined as:
(5)
4
Z. Wang and C. Zhang International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

∫ { }
1
L [u, u̇, θ, Γc ] = ρu̇ ⋅ u̇ − ψ 0 (εe (u, θ)) + ρb ⋅ u + ρcθ̇ + ∇ ⋅ q − r dV u = u, on ∂Ωu × [0, ta ]
Ω/Γc 2 (17)
∫ ∫ θ = θ, on ∂Ωθ × [0, ta ]
+ t ⋅ udΓc + q ⋅ ndΓc − gc |Γc |
∂ Ωt ∂Ωq where q = − k⋅∇θ is the heat flux, k is the coefficient of heat
(8) conductivity.
In the above equations, Eq. (16) is the so-called Neumann boundary
where c is the specific heat capacity, gc is the critical energy release rate, condition (the second boundary condition), and Eq. (17) is the Dirichlet
ρ is the density of the solids, and ψ 0 is the density of initial elastic strain boundary condition (the first boundary condition).
energy, which is correlated with elastic strain78:
2.2.2. The phase field cohesive zone method (PF-CZM)
εe = ε − εθ (9)
The strain density function ψ (ε, θ, d) is defined as the product of the
where ε and εθ are total strain and thermally induced strain, respec­ energy degradation function ω(d) and the initial strain energy density
tively, which are defined as: function ψ 0 (ε, θ) concerning the thermally induced fracture process of
quasi-brittle materials, namely74:
1( ) θ
ε= ∇u + (∇u)T ε = αθ ⋅ΔθI (10) ψ (ε, θ, d) = ω(d)ψ 0 (ε, θ) (18)
2

where I is the identity tensor, αθ is the coefficient of thermal expansion with

(CTE). 1( ) ( ) 1
A scalar variable d : Ω→[0, 1] is proposed to measure damage and ψ 0 (ε, θ) = ε − εθ : E0 : ε − εθ = σ : C0 : σ (19)
2 2
rupture of the material in the phase field model. The unfractured and
fully fractured scenarios are determined respectively by d = 0 and d = where C0 and E0 are the fourth-order elastic compliance and stiffness
1. Consequently, the crack surface is smeared, as shown in Fig. 1. The tensors, respectively. σ is the stress tensor expressed given the elastic
volume of the fractures is approximated by the image segmentation constitutive relations:
theory with the following formula:
∫ ∫ σ = E 0 : εe (20)
gc dA ≈ gc ⋅γ(d; ∇d)dV (11) Note that for rock materials adopted in the study, Hooke’s elastic
relation is utilized. There main reason for adopting Hooke’s elastic
Γc Ω\Γc

where γ(d; ∇d) is a crack surface density function with the given ex­ relation is to reduce the nonlinearity of the numerical simulation, which
pressions: can benefit in improving the computational efficiency. The numerical
results reported in Chen et al.79 suggested that the assumption of ma­
[ ] ∫ 1 √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
1 1 terial linear elasticity does not affect the good agreement between the
γ(d; ∇d) = α(d) + lc |∇d|2 with cα = 4 α(β)dβ (12)
cα lc 0 numerical models and the experimental results.
The energy release rate of cracking solids is defined as:
where lc > 0 is the length scale parameter, and α(d) ∈ [0, 1] is the frac­
ture geometry function that fulfils the following conditions:
∂ψ
Y= − = − ω′(d)H (21)
∂d
′
α (d)⩾0, α(0) = 0, α(1) = 1 (13)
where, H = ∂ψ /∂ω is the effective energy release rate, it also drives the
Then, the variational formulation is regularized as finding a sta­ evolution of the phase field d. ω′(d) = ∂ω/∂d is the derivative of the
∫t
tionary point of Lagrangian57 L :S lc [u, u̇, θ, Γc ] = 0a L lc [u, u̇, θ, Γc ]dt energy degradation function for phase field.
with For brittle materials such as biotite diorite adopted in this paper, in
∫ { } order to differentiate the behavior under tensile stress and compressive
1
L lc [u, u̇, θ, Γc ] = ρu̇ ⋅ u̇ − ψ (εe (u, θ), d) + ρb ⋅ u + ρcθ̇ + ∇ ⋅ q − r dV stress, the criterion of the maximum tensile stress is applied, and the
Ω 2
∫ ∫ ∫ [ ] history variable has been redefined as74:
1 1
+ t ⋅ udΓc + q ⋅ ndΓc − gc α(d) + lc |∇d|2 dV
Ω cα lc 1
∂Ωt ∂Ωq
H = 〈σ 1 〉2+ (22)
(14) 2E0

The stationary point problem can be further converted into a strong where, σ 1 is the first principal stress of the Cauchy stress tensor σ . E0 is
form with the given formulations57: the elastic Young’s modulus. For any a ∈ R, 〈a〉± : = (a ±|a|) / 2. Then,
div⋅σ + ρb = ρü inΩ×[0,ta ] the partial differential equations governing the evolution of fractures is
[ ] given as follows:
∂ψ 1 1 ′ [ ]
ρcθ̇ +∇⋅q = r in Ω×[0,ta ]− − g α (d)− 2lc Δd = 0
∂d c cα lc − ω′(d)H − gc
1 1 ′
α (d) − 2lc Δd = 0 (23)
cα lc
inΩ×[0,ta ]
(15) The following conditions must be guaranteed to ensure the non-
inversibility of cracks:
where σ = ∂ψ /∂εe is the Cauchy stress. Additionally, the boundary ⎧
conditions shown as follows needs to be applied: ⎨ 1 〈σ1 〉2 , if 1 〈σ1 〉2 > H n
⎪
(24)
+ +
H = 2E0 2E0
σ ⋅n = t on ∂Ωt × [0, ta ] ⎪
⎩ H ,
n otherwise
q⋅n = q on ∂Ωq × [0, ta ] (16)
∂d where H n is the history variable calculated in the n-th incremental time
∂n
=0 on ∂Ω × [0, ta ] step.
Per the formulas of Wu,51 the cohesion is implicitly considered in the
following generic formulas to address the issue of crack formation and

5
Z. Wang and C. Zhang
Fig. 2. Comparison of experimental tests and numerical predicted results of ceramics under thermal shock.
propagation under the framework of phase field cohesive zone methods
(PF-CZM) and there is no need to consider cohesive elements in the
numerical models.
(1 − d)2
α(d) = 2d − d2 , ω(d) = 2
, cα = π
(1 − d) + a1 d⋅(1 − 0.5d)
where
/ adopted for the determination of mechanical displacement, temperature
4 lch
a1 = ⋅ , lch = E0 gc ft2
π lc
where lch is the Griffith or Irwin length governing the brittleness of
materials, and ft is the critical tensile strength.
The aforementioned scheme is a phase-field regularized cohesive
zone model incorporating thermo-mechanical coupling, suitable for the
complex failure and fracture of brittle materials under thermal shock
loading. For more details regards PFMs, readers can refer the critical
review of Wu et al.,80 theoretical and computational considerations are
considered, and a series of benchmark problems (for quasi-static and
dynamic brittle/cohesive fracture) successfully and unsuccessfully
tackled with PFMs are introduced. Unresolved issues for additional
investigation are also included.
3. Numerical examples
The numerical issues of implementing PF-CZM in COMSOL Multi­
physics are addressed in this section. The work involved in COMSOL
Multiphysics mainly involves determining the strongly-formed govern­
ing equations for each physical field included and the setup of the solver.
Upon this work, the spatial and temporal discretization is automatically
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of boundary conditions and geometry of a quarter model in numerical simulation.
International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719
executed according to some built-in standard numerical techniques, i.e.
finite element and Eulerian methods. The subsequent solution process
aims at achieving equilibrium results. The module setup for coupled
thermo-mechanical fracture problems and the staggered algorithm for
solving the nonlinear coupling equations are highlighted here. This
(25)
implies the feasibility of implementing PF-CZM in COMSOL Multi­
physics. For thermal-mechanical problems, three basic modules, i.e.
Solid Mechanics, Heat Transfer in Solids and Poisson’s Equation, can be
(26) and crack phase field. Readers interested in the numerical imple­
mentation of PF-CZM in COMSOL Multiphysics can refer to Chen et al.79
In order to verify the accuracy of PF-CZM and evaluate the appli­
cability in simulating microwave-induced fractures in rocks, the exper­
iments of Jiang et al.81 are firstly simulated with PF-CZM. Based on the
agreement of both numerical and experimental results, the simulation of
microwave-induced fractures in rocks is numerically reproduced. Note
that the computational cost for PF-CZM is high due to a maximum
element size restricted by a small regularization length parameter.
Therefore, the sensitivity analysis of finite element size is seldom con­
ducted. The element size selected for each numerical example is under
the consideration for obtaining a tradeoff between computational cost
and numerical accuracy.
3.1. Quenching test with complex crack pattern
In 2012, Jiang et al.81 carried out the quenching test using ceramics.
The ceramic materials are heated to a temperature between 300◦ C and
600◦ C. Then, a water bath is performed after the heating process. After
10 min of dropping, the samples are removed from the water. Blue ink is
then used to dye to reveal the crack patterns. Fig. 2(a) shows the
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Z. Wang and C. Zhang International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

Table 1
Mechanical and physical parameters of ceramics plate.
Material properties Values Material properties Values

Young’s modulus, E0 370 GPa Thermal expansion coefficient, ηt 7.5 × 10− 6 K− 1

Poisson’s ratio, ν0 0.3 Density, ρ 3980 kg/m3

Tensile failure strength, ft 180 MPa Thermal conductivity, Κ0 31 W/(m⋅K)
Critical energy release rate, gc 42.47 J/m2 Specific heat capacity, c 880 J/(kg⋅K)

revealed crack patterns under thermal shock. As shown, a set of parallel
and periodic cracks are formed at the surface of the specimen (since the
thermally induced stresses reach the maximum at the specimen’s sur­
face). While some cracks continue propagating, others stop growing.
More fractures are observed as the increases of initial temperature.
Fig. 3 shows the assumed boundary conditions for the numerical
model. Specifically, horizontal displacement is applied at the bottom
and the right edges. A thermal insulation condition is considered on the
right and bottom edges. The water bath temperature is applied to the
upper and left edges.82
As the temperature-dependent test data is rather limited,
temperature-independent properties are considered in this work. A set of
different temperatures are numerically simulated including T0 = 300◦ C,
350◦ C, 400◦ C, 500◦ C, and 600◦ C. The Irwin length parameter lch =
0.15 mm is taken into account. The quadrilateral element is adopted
with a global length of 0.05 mm to guarantee the accuracy. 50,000 el­
ements are simulated in the computational domain. A small-time step is
used to simulate thermal shock.
Table 1summarizes the model properties taken from.81,83,84 By
symmetrizing and superimposing the results from one quarter, we can
obtain the results of the entire plate. A good agreement is achieved
between the numerically predicted and experimentally observed pat­
terns, as shown in Fig. 2.
The accuracy of the PF-CZM in solving thermal-induced fractures of
rock is confirmed by the fact that the simulated results are relatively
close to the test results. For this reason, the PF-CZM is then applied to
microwave-induced fracture in a 2D reduced thermo-mechanical model.

Fig. 4. Configurations of microwave applicators with respect to TBM disc cutters.1.

Fig. 5. Workflow of the developed framework for simulating microwave-induced fractures.

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Z. Wang and C. Zhang International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

Fig. 6. (a) Simulation scheme of electromagnetic-thermo model (modified from Ma et al.2). (b) 2D reduced thermo-mechanical model adopted in this work.

Table 2
Microwave-induced fractures: Material properties.
Material properties Values Material properties Values

Young’s modulus, E0 80 GPa Thermal expansion coefficient, ηt 4.16 × 10− 6 K− 1

Poisson’s ratio, ν0 0.3 Density, ρ 2680 kg/m3

Tensile failure strength, ft 10 MPa Thermal conductivity, Κ0 2.9 W/(m⋅K)
Critical energy release rate, gc 50 J/m2 Specific heat capacity, c 850 J/(kg⋅K)
Dielectric constant, ε′ 5 Loss angle, δ 0.023

3.2. Formation of microwave-induced fractures
Ma et al.2 conducted microwave tests in 2021. In the experiments, a
series of fine-grained biotite diorites of size 250mm × 250mm × 250mm
are irradiated. They compared the performance of rock breakage
induced by microwave with a series of converged microwave antennas
at a power level ranging from 3 to 6 kW. The research is experimentally
conducted at lab scale for exploring the preferred microwave antenna
geometry parameters. The results are considered as the basis for assist­
ing conventional mechanized tool in enhancing performance of rock

Fig. 7. Numerically predicted fractures and experimental results for microwave at 5 kW power levels.

8
Z. Wang and C. Zhang
Fig. 8. (a) Numerical prediction of electric field intensity for 3 kW to 6 kW power levels at 4 min duration; (b) Numerical prediction of temperature for 3 kW–6 kW
power levels at 4 min duration.
breaking. Fig. 4 presents the configurations of microwave applicators
with respect to TBM dics cutters in Zheng.1 The 109.22mm × 30 mm
rectangular converged waveguide antenna is adopted for our numerical
reproduction considering the satisfied performance in heating effi­
ciency.17 The numerical model is to evaluate the applicability of phase
field cohesive zone method in simulating microwave-induced fractures
in rocks and provide some quantitative analysis for future engineering
applications.
The workflow is shown in Fig. 5. In COMSOL Multiphysics, the
electromagnetic field cannot be solved in a 2D model due to the limits of
the numerical platform. Therefore, the electromagnetic field is firstly
solved in a 3D model with the built-in Electromagnetic Waves, Fre­
quency Domain module. Then the heating loss, acted as heat source
induced by microwave is extracted and imported into the 2D model. To
reduce the extensive computational time induced by the fine mesh
required for PF-CZM,51 a two-dimensional model is considered, and the
numerical modelling scheme is presented in Fig. 6. The quadrilateral
elements with a global length of 2 mm are adopted in the simulation. 15,
625 elements in the computational model are simulated. The mechani­
cal and physical properties are taken from Ma et al.17 and are summa­
rized in Table 2.
Note that the rock material is simply assumed to be homogeneous as
an initial trial for exploring the fracture mechanism in rocks induced by
microwave. Moreover, the tensile failure strength for all the rocks in the
presented models is assumed to be 10 MPa as the test data is rather
limited for the rocks reported in Ma et al.17 The value is taken from an
average of uniaxial tensile test results in industry regards biotite diorite.
As the heterogeneity of rock materials is ubiquitous, it is not available to
quantify the tensile failure strength for each specimen via uniaxial
tensile test before microwave treatment. The averaged value of tensile
failure strength taken in this research is available for gaining reliable
data for analysis. The convection heat exchange coefficient between
rock and air is 5 W/(m2⋅K) as reported in Ma et al.17 The experimental
and numerical results are presented in Fig. 7.
In the experiment, cracking starts at the center of the rock and then
propagates outwards to form radial cracks, as shown in Fig. 7. Note that
in our simulations, the physical and mechanical properties of the rock
are the same for different irradiation duration, this is different from the
real experiments. In the microwave tests, 4 rock samples are utilized for
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International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719
different irradiation duration, as illustrated by Ma et al.17 According to
Ma et al.,17 the rock material is a fine-grained biotite diorite from a
quarry in Fujian province, China. Although the 4 samples come from the
same place, the mechanical and physical properties cannot be the same
due to the heterogeneity of minerals, leading to a random result of
fractures. Nevertheless, the fractures initiate from the center and prop­
agate to the boundary in a scattered norm at such a medium rock size as
illustrated in,85 which suggests a good agreement in both the simulated
model and physical experiments. This confirms the feasibility of the
proposed model in simulating thermal cracking, as the results of the
numerically computed results are consistent with the test results. Also,
due to the varying sensitivity of the mineral to microwave irradiation,20
the cracking patterns of the two cannot be completely consistent.
4. Exploration of simulated microwave-induced fractures
This section assesses corresponding data analysis based on the pre­
vious microwave-induced fracture modeling. As the numerical model­
ling of fractures induced by microwave is intrinsically a multiphysics
coupling problem that includes the energy conversion, this section will
investigate the evolution of the electromagnetic, thermal, displacement,
and phase fields, followed by energy consumption analysis. Here, 3
kW–6 kW power levels are chosen for the corresponding analysis. Sec­
tion 4.1 analyses the evolution of electromagnetic field and thermal
field, the spatial distribution of temperature and electromagnetic pa­
rameters influencing fractures are discussed; Section 4.2 compares the
heterogeneity of electromagnetic and thermal parameters between 3 kW
and 6 kW, which is evaluated to quantify and compare the evolution of
electric and thermal properties between two different power levels;
Section 4.3 characterizes the evolution of fracture, stress and strain,
which will help understand the mechanism of microwave-induced
stress, strain and the corresponding fractures in rock-like materials;
Section 4.4 quantitatively analyzes the energy utilization ratio and en­
ergy consumption ratio between 3 kW and 6 kW power levels. The above
four subsections aim to perform a quantitative analysis in helping to
understand the microwave-induced fractures in rocks and providing
constructive suggestions in assisting the rock breakage in industry.
Z. Wang and C. Zhang
Fig. 9. (a) Fractures evolution at 3 kW microwave power level and temperature distribution and the central vertical line for 4min durations. (b) Fractures evolution
at 6 kW microwave power level and temperature distribution and the central vertical line for 4min duration.
4.1. Evolution of electromagnetic and thermal properties
The electromagnetic and thermal properties are primarily charac­
terized. In Fig. 8, both electric field intensity and temperature for
different microwave power levels at 4 min duration are performed. With
a higher microwave power level, both the electric field intensity and
temperature increase. This is because more microwave-induced energy
is converted to heat energy in rock and thus leads to a higher temper­
ature increase and more non-uniformity of temperature, as indicated in
Eq. (5). Then, the non-uniformity of temperature is quantitatively
analyzed in Fig. 9.
Fig. 9 (a) and Fig. 9 (b) compare the temperature distribution at 3 kW
and 6 kW power levels for a 4-min duration at a central vertical line. In
the simulation, both 3 kW and 6 kW cases show an increase in the central
high-temperature domain. The highest temperature for 6 kW power
level reaches over 600◦ C, almost twice that in 3 kW cases. A higher
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International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719
temperature in the central domain leads to a larger temperature
gradient, which induces more fractures generated. Note that higher
microwave power levels generate a greater temperature increase due to
more microwave energy input. However, a higher microwave power
level generates more cracks for the same input energy. Because of the
same input energy, a higher microwave power level leads to a greater
temperature increase in the central domain. Consequently, a greater
temperature gradient leads to more fractures. This is consistent with the
findings in the previous literature. Readers interested in the topic are
referred to.17 Furthermore, a higher power level can decrease the
heating time needed for the rock, which is applicable in assisting
mechanized tools such as TBM.86
Then, the evolution of the temperature gradient is quantitatively
analyzed. In Fig. 10, it is shown that in the central part, where the
temperature reaches a high value, the corresponding temperature
gradient appears low. This is attributed to the open-ended converging
Z. Wang and C. Zhang International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

Fig. 10. (a) Fractures evolution at 3 kW microwave power level and temperature distribution and the central vertical line for 4min duration. (b) Fractures evolution
at 6 kW microwave power level and temperature distribution and the central vertical line for 4min duration.

waveguide antenna (CWA) that constrains the microwave energy within
the central domain of the rock specimen.2,18 Therefore, the
high-temperature domain exhibits a relatively uniform temperature
distribution, as shown in Fig. 9. With a longer microwave heating time,
the thermal gradient in the central part becomes lower, indicating a
more uniform temperature distribution where the CWA is placed. This
further enhances the conclusions drawn in2,18 that the CWA is capable of
focusing the microwave energy, and the fractures initiate and propagate
from the central part to the boundary attributed to the induced thermal
gradient. Furthermore, Fig. 10 shows that the fractures initiate where
the temperature gradient reaches a great value. This confirmed the
intrinsic characteristics of microwave heating.
As mentioned in the previous literature,18,40,87–91 the temperature
distribution is dependent on the distribution of electric field intensity
which is related to the propagation of the electromagnetic wave. Unlike
conventional heating, which depends on the convection of thermal en­
ergy, microwave heating is characterized by electromagnetic field irra­
diation. This produces a high thermal gradient in the high-temperature
domain producing microwave-induced fractures due to a high thermally
induced stress gradient. Compared with conventional heating,

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Z. Wang and C. Zhang International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

Fig. 11. (a) Evolution of the thermal and electric properties in rock with 3 kW power level. (b) Evolution of thermal and electric properties in rock at 6 kW
power level.

microwave heating shows great potential in enhancing hard rock √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅

√
breaking as the great thermal gradient is generated under microwave 1√ 1 ∑ N

irradiation. As shown in Fig. 10, a higher microwave power level pro­ COVE = √ (Ei − E)2
E N i=1
duces a larger temperature gradient for the same energy input, which
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
further yields more fractures. This indicates that temperature gradient √
1√ 1 ∑ N
plays a significant role in contributing to initiation and propagation of COVT = √ (Ti − T)2
T N
fractures in rock, further characterizing the conclusions drawn in the i=1

previous work.18,40,87–91 √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅

√
1 √ √1
∑ N
( )2
COVGradT = GradiT − GradT
4.2. Heterogeneity characterization of electromagnetic and thermal GradT N i=1
properties (27)
∑
N
Ei
Based on the exploration in Section 4.1, the distribution of electric i
E=
and thermal field can have an impact on the fractures induced by mi­ N
crowave. Therefore, in this section the electric and thermal properties ∑
N

are quantified to evaluate correlation between the heterogeneity of i

Ti
electric and thermal properties. In order to quantify how the electric and T=
N
thermal properties evolve, analysis on the heterogeneity of electric field
∑
N
intensity, temperature and temperature gradient is shown. Here, the GradiT
coefficient of variance is adopted to evaluate the heterogeneity of the GradT = i

above properties quantitatively. The corresponding definitions are listed N

as follows:
where COVE is the coefficient of variance of electric field intensity; E is
the average electric field intensity; N is the number of Gauss integration
points for a summation of meshes; Ei is the electric field intensity at each
Gauss integration point for a summation of meshes; COVT is the coeffi­
cient of variance of temperature; T is the average temperature; Ti is the

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Z. Wang and C. Zhang International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

Fig. 12. Maximum principal stress, fractures, and maximum principal strain at 3 kW power level.

Fig. 13. Maximum principal stress, fractures, and maximum principal strain at 6 kW power level.

temperature value at each Gauss integration point of a summation of
meshes; COVGradT is the coefficient of variance of temperature gradient;
GradT is the average temperature gradient; GradiT is the temperature
gradient value at each Gauss integration point of a summation of
meshes; GradT is the average temperature gradient.
The results are performed in Fig. 11. A significant increase in electric
and thermal properties is shown at 6 kW power level compared to that at
3 kW. This indicates that a higher microwave power level generates a
higher temperature in rock. This is mainly attributed to increased mi­
crowave energy input induced by a higher microwave frequency.
Meanwhile, the coefficient of temperature variance shows the same

13
Z. Wang and C. Zhang
Fig. 14. Strain energy evolution at different microwave power levels.
increase trend at both 3 kW and 6 kW power levels as the temperature in
the central part increases. Furthermore, the coefficient of variance of
temperature gradient decreases at both 3 kW and 6 kW due to the overall
temperature increase that decreases the overall heterogeneity of tem­
perature gradient in rock. Note that the coefficient of variance of electric
field intensity remains constant; the reason is that we assume the
dielectric properties are temperature-independent so that the nonline­
arity of the model can be reduced since the dielectric properties will not
vary significantly in the given temperature and electromagnetic fre­
quency.17 In conclusion, the power level significantly affects the thermal
and mechanical responses, leading to the variation of fractures.
4.3. Characterization of mechanical and fractures evolution
We then study the stress and strain evolution via the simulation
owing to the propagation of microwave and the induced temperature
increase. The corresponding numerical results are shown in Figs. 12 and
13. In Fig. 12, it is shown that the fractures initiate due to the tensile
stress induced by the thermal gradient. In the simulation, the tensile
strength is assumed to be 10 MPa. Thermal-induced stress increases until
it exceeds tensile strength. After that, the stress where the fractures
propagate is reduced. This is stress-softening behavior attributed to the
Fig. 15. Quantitative analysis via numerical models of microwave-induced fractures and microwave energy input under 3 kW and 6 kW power levels.
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International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719
occurrence of fractures. Furthermore, at the tip of the fractures, an in­
crease of stress occurs due to the localized discontinued deformation of
the occurrence of fractures. As shown in Fig. 13, the evolution of stress at
the corresponding time is different. At 6 kW power level, more micro­
wave energy is absorbed, and the temperature increases in a shorter
period than at 3 kW. Therefore, the stress reaches the tensile strength
within 1min, generating more fractures. Note that the fractures are
purely tensile-induced fractures in the performed cases, which has been
experimentally verified with the acoustic emission by Zheng et al.91
4.4. Energy utilization and consumption analysis
Furthermore, based on energy conservation, we then perform an
energy analysis on the evolution of microwave-induced fractures. In
Fig. 14, the evolution of strain energy is performed. In PF-CZM, the
criterion governing the fractures can be summarized as follows:
∫ ∫
δD = Yδd dV ⩽Gf δAS = Gf δγdV (28)
B
⏟̅̅̅̅̅̅ B
̅⏞⏞̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏟ ⏟̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏞⏞̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
̅⏟
Stored Energy Fracture surface energy
where δD is the variation of released energy of fractured solid, B is the
fracture domain, Y is the energy release ratio, δd is the variation of phase
field, Gf is the fracture energy, δAS is the variation of fracture surface
area, δγ is the variation of the density function of fractures surface area.
Once the fracture energy suppresses the strain energy, the fractures
evolve. In Fig. 14, the energy evolution for different power levels is
compared. For all the performed cases, the stored energy accumulates as
the heating time increases and then decreases once the fractures initiate.
The reason is that the increased temperature in rock induces thermal
expansion of rock specimens, leading to increased stored energy. When
the thermally induced stress reaches 10 MPa, fractures initiate and the
fracture energy increases. In the presented microwave heating exam­
ples, the fractures occur instantly due to the significant thermal gradient
induced by the microwave; therefore, the stored energy decreased
sharply at the beginning of the first crack. However, the overall energy is
conservative since the PF-CZM is thermodynamically consistent, as
indicated in.74 From Fig. 14, with a higher microwave power level, the
stored energy decreases in a shorter period and experiences more fluc­
tuation as more fractures occur. This further verifies that a higher mi­
crowave power level benefits real engineering application.
Then the microwave energy input and the induced fracture length
are analyzed via the numerical models. In Fig. 15, the microwave-
Z. Wang and C. Zhang International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

Fig. 16. Temperature difference for different microwave power levels with different energy input.

Fig. 17. Relationship of energy utilization ratio and power level.

induced crack length and the corresponding microwave energy input is

plotted. Obviously, the crack grows as the increase of microwave energy
input. Compared with fractures under 3 kW and 6 kW power levels, the
fractures not only initiated earlier under the 6 kW power level pre­
treatment, the fracture length are almost as twice as that in the 3 kW
microwave power level case. Fig. 15 suggested that microwave power Fig. 18. Fractures 360 kJ energy input under different microwave
level plays a vital role in influencing the initiation and propagation of power levels.
fractures in rock-like materials. The higher the microwave power level
is, the greater the strain ratio occurs, and thus more fractures are energy is defined as E = P × T, where E is microwave energy, P is mi­
induced. This further motivated us to increase the microwave power crowave power level, T is heating time. We hereby compare the mi­
level in engineering via the enhancement of developing microwave fa­ crowave energy of 360 kJ and 720 kJ, respectively. For the 3 kW power
cilities. This can ensure higher heating efficiency and an advance in level, 2 and 4 min are required to reach 360 kJ and 720 kJ microwave
assisting rock breaking by saving commercial cost and construction energy. However, for the 6 kW microwave power level, the corre­
duration. sponding time is reduced to 1 min and 2 min to reach the corresponding
The evolution of microwave energy is investigated. Here, microwave

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Z. Wang and C. Zhang International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719

Fig. 19. Relationships of microwave energy, power level and heating time.

Electromagnetic heating loss

Energy utilization ratio = (29)
Input microwave energy

where electromagnetic heating loss acts as the heat source in rock.

In Fig. 19, the energy utilization ratio remains 0.332 due to the
temperature-independent dielectric properties considered in the model.
However, with the same energy utilization ratio, the maximum tem­
perature and the coefficient of variance of temperature increases, pro­
ducing more fractures. Fig. 19 shows the evolution of energy
consumption ratio with temperature. Here, the energy consumption
ratio is defined as:
Pi × ti
Energy consumption ratio = (30)
P3 × t3

where P is microwave power level, t is heating duration, i is the specific

power level value.
The energy consumption ratio is the energy input ratio to gain the
same maximum temperature. We now choose 3 kW as the reference
microwave power level to quantify the energy consumption ratio. As is
shown in Fig. 20, with the increase of power level, the energy con­
sumption ratio decreases, and with the temperature increases, the en­
ergy consumption ratio continues to decrease. Therefore, a high-power
Fig. 20. Relationship of energy consumption ratio and temperature.
level decreases the energy consumption, so the same energy input could
induce a higher temperature gradient and thus generate more cracks.
microwave energy, respectively. For the same energy input, the corre­
sponding temperature difference is compared in Fig. 16. A higher mi­
5. Conclusions
crowave power level can induce a greater temperature difference and
thus, more fractures are produced under thermal gradient. This suggests
A reduced thermomechanical model for the simulation of
that a high power level is preferred in assisting mechanized tools such as
microwave-induced rock fracture based on PF-CZM is presented in this
TBM since the heating duration is limited. Therefore, applying an even
study. The proposed coupled model includes three main aspects: thermal
higher power level is viable to weaken the rock’s strength efficiently.
conductivity, microwave-induced stress and microwave-induced frac­
Then, we analyze the heating efficiency from the energy aspect. In
tures. The correctness of the coupled model in dealing with the problems
Fig. 17, for the same energy input, it is evident that as the power level
of thermo-mechanical fractures and microwave-induced fractures is
increases, the duration required decreases, and for the same heating
verified by the given ceramic quenching tests and microwave tests,
duration, a higher power level produces more microwave energy. Fig. 18
respectively. Finally, a series of analyses for microwave-induced frac­
presents fractures with 360 kJ microwave energy input at different
tures in rock is discussed. The main findings are as follows:
power levels. It is shown that with higher power levels, not only the
heating duration is saved but also more fractures are produced.
(a) The fractures pretreated by microwave are highly associated with
Furthermore, a study on energy utilization and energy consumption
the thermal gradient. Thermal energy is nonuniformly distributed
is presented to maximise energy efficiency and minimise economic cost.
in rock specimens that affect the temperature distribution. Thus,
In Fig. 19, the energy utilization ratio at different power levels is pre­
a great thermal gradient is achieved locally. Fractures initiate
sented; here, we define the energy utilization ratio as follows:
when the temperature gradient reaches a large value and

16
Z. Wang and C. Zhang
propagates to the boundary. The reason is that the large thermal
gradient produces a large stress gradient in the center of the rock.
(b) Microwave power level is critical in governing the fractures.
More specifically, the higher the microwave power level is, the
more fractures there are. A higher microwave power level also
leads to a high-temperature increase and thermal gradient and,
eventually, an increase in stress gradient.
(c) From the energy aspect, the energy is governed by the irradiation
time and power level. Under the same energy input, the irradi­
ated duration is decreased under a high microwave power level,
which benefits the mechanized tools in the industry. Further­
more, the energy utilization ratio and consumption ratio are
highly relevant to the power level. The higher the microwave
power level is, the more energy is utilized.
Moreover, the following work is suggested to be addressed in future
work for investigating the fracture mechanism of rock materials induced
by microwave:
(a) Quantitative analysis is performed via the homogeneous model
adopted in this research, which deepens understanding the frac­
ture mechanisms induced by microwave in rock materials. From
the comparison of numerical results and experimental results,
material heterogeneity plays a significant role in influencing the
crack patterns induced by microwave. Therefore, an improved
representation of rock material is required to capture the features
of microwave-induced fracture in experimental study. This work
needs to be addressed in the future work.
(b) The robustness and rationality of PF-CZM has been evaluated in
the proposed numerical models. However, the PF-CZM suffers
from high computational cost. The reasons for the drawback are
twofold. First, it is necessary to sufficiently refine mesh in
damaged zone to accurately resolve the gradient term. Second,
the alternating minimization solver is robust but the convergence
rate is slow. Advancements in computer hardware and computing
technologies will help to increase the efficiency of PF-CZM
simulations.
(c) The potential of adopting PF-CZM in simulating microwave-
induced fractures in rock materials is initially explored. More
numerical simulations are yet to be conducted for investigating
the fracture mechanisms in-depth. The impact of material brit­
tleness to fractures in rocks after microwave irradiation needs to
be addressed in future work.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Zicheng Wang: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Software,
Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptu­
alization. Chunshun Zhang: Writing – review & editing, Supervision,
Project administration, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52278367).
17
International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 176 (2024) 105719
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