A promising solution to reduce energy usage and mitigate the wear of drilling and comminution tools during mining operations involves inducing vibrations within the piezoelectric phases dispersed in the structure of rocks using alternating current (AC). This paper presents experimental evidence of AC-induced weakening of Kuru granite, manifested as improvements in rock drillability and reductions of strength. Sievers’ J-miniat...

Piezoelectric excitation of quartz mineral phase in granite using high-frequency and high-voltage alternating current (HF-HV-AC) is a potential new weakening pretreatment in comminution of rock. The present study addresses this topic numerically by quantifying the weakening effect on the compressive strength of granite. For this end, a numerical method based on a damage-viscoplasticity model for granite failure under piezoelec...

This paper presents a numerical study on the effects of microwave irradiation on the mechanical properties of hard rock. More specifically, the weakening effect of microwave heating induced damage on the uniaxial compressive and tensile strength of granite-like rock is numerically evaluated. Rock fracture is modelled by means of a damage-viscoplasticity model with separate damage variables for tensile and compressive failure t...

This paper presents a combined viscoplasticity-embedded discontinuity model for 3D analyses of rock failure processes under dynamic loading. Capabilities of a rate-dependent embedded discontinuity model, implemented with the linear tetrahedral element, for mode I (tension) loading induced fractures is extended to compressive (shear) failure description by viscoplastic softening model with the Drucker–Prager yield criterion. Th...