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Effects of Elevated Temperatures on the Microstructural, Physico-Mechanical and Elastic Properties of Barakar Sandstone: A Study from One of the World’s Largest Underground Coalmine Fire Region, Jharia, India

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Abstract

Experimental investigations of the effects of elevated temperature on microstructural, mineralogical, physico-mechanical and elastic properties of rocks were carried out to understand the effect of underground coal fire along with thermal damage and failure initiation in Barakar sandstone from the Jharia coalfield, India. Discolouration analysis, petrographic studies, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis and electron probe micro analysis were carried out to understand the microstructural and mineralogical changes in thermally treated samples. The experimental results suggest that the changes in investigated properties follow three characteristic thermal zones: zone I (25–300 °C), zone II (300–500 °C) and zone III (500–800 °C). Among all, zone II is a prominent transition region where a rapid increase in crack density, porosity and thermal damage is observed along with a sharp reduction in seismic wave velocities, uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength and elastic parameters. Development of thermal stress-induced intergranular and intragranular micro-cracks, evaporation of organic matters, and dehydration and thermal decomposition of minerals are the most conspicuous reasons for the observed changes in this zone. Zone III is characterized by phase transformation of quartz, recrystallization and partial melting of cement and phyllosilicates that filled some of the existing micro-cracks, resulting in a local change of porosity, strength and elastic properties. Developments of different failure modes are observed in different temperature ranges such as simple shear along a single plane in zone I, progressive growth of Y-shaped (double plane) shearing in the zones II and III (400–700 °C) and axial splitting at 800 °C. The results from this study provide comprehensive elaboration of thermal effects on sandstones at a particular temperature range.

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Courtesy (a–d): Gautam Dey

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Acknowledgements

A. Tripathi thankfully acknowledges the support by the MHRD fellowship (PhD) granted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. All authors acknowledge the support provided by TEQIP-III, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad for field and experimental work. The authors would also like to express deep gratitude to Dr. A. K. Verma for providing instrumental facility and Mr. B. Munshi for technical support during experimental work. The critical comments of the two anonymous reviewers, and the editor are highly appreciated for improving the clarity of the paper.

Funding

A. Tripathi acknowledges the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) funded fellowship and support provided by the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. The authors also highly acknowledge the financial support provided by TEQIP-III, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad for field and experimental work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India

    Adarsh Tripathi & Nachiketa Rai

  2. Department of Applied Geology, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, Jharkhand, 826004, India

    Noopur Gupta & Sarada P. Mohanty

  3. CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR), Bilaspur Research Center, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, 495001, India

    Ashok Kumar Singh

  4. Geotechnical Engineering Group, CSIR-Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, 247667, India

    Anindya Pain

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  1. Adarsh Tripathi
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Contributions

Conceptualization, methodology, writing-original draft preparation, formal analysis, Visualization: AT and NG. Validation, writing-reviewing, editing, visualization: AKS. Validation, writing-reviewing, editing, funding acquisition: SPM. Validation and reviewing: NR and AP.

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Correspondence to Adarsh Tripathi.

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Tripathi, A., Gupta, N., Singh, A.K. et al. Effects of Elevated Temperatures on the Microstructural, Physico-Mechanical and Elastic Properties of Barakar Sandstone: A Study from One of the World’s Largest Underground Coalmine Fire Region, Jharia, India. Rock Mech Rock Eng 54, 1293–1314 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02315-9

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