Effect of microwave radiation on mechanical behaviors of tight fine sandstone subjected to true triaxial stress

During the exploitation of deep resources, rock masses are under three-dimensional anisotropic stress conditions owing to tectonic conditions and engineering disturbances. Owing to the advantages of high heating efficiency and selective volume heating, microwaves have broad application prospects in fields such as unconventional low-permeability reservoir fracturing. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the mechanical behavior of rocks under true triaxial stress after microwave irradiation. In this study, true triaxial tests of sandstone under different microwave irradiation conditions were conducted. The results showed that the strength of the irradiated sandstone first increased and then decreased. The strength of the irradiated sandstone was significantly lower than that of the unirradiated sandstone. The pre-peak brittleness of the sandstone gradually increased with an increase in σ₂. The brittleness of the irradiated samples was lower than that of the unirradiated samples. For the post-peak brittleness index of the sandstone, with the increase of σ₂, the microwave irradiated and unirradiated sandstone both gradually decreased first and then slowly increased. The residual strength of the unirradiated sandstone showed a trend of first increasing and then stabilizing, while the residual strength of the irradiated sample showed a greater dispersion and fluctuation. And, the residual strength of sandstone first increased and then decreased with the increase of microwave duration. In addition, a new double logarithmic linear strength model was proposed, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. The true triaxial stress induced anisotropic damage and deformation of sandstone are critical to rock fracture. The stress difference induced by water vapor expansion and mineral thermal expansion is the main factor for microwave breaking water-bearing sandstone. This work is of great significance to the research and application of microwave assisted breaking hard rock and fracturing deep low-permeability reservoir rocks.