As environmental requirements become more stringent, the liquid carbon dioxide blasting system is one of the non-explosive blasting technologies that, with low tensile stress energy, will replace the chemical explosive blasting technology, and the impact pressure characteristic of high-pressure fluid is a crucial factor in the process of rock breaking. To further investigate the impact and pressure attenuation characteristics of high-pressure fluid during the phase transition of liquid carbon dioxide blasting system, the pressure curves of high-pressure fluid in liquid carbon dioxide blasting systems at different distances were measured in the laboratory. Based on the mechanism analysis of phase transition kinetics, the initial jet velocity of the four experiments was calculated, and the rationality of results was verified by the Bernoulli equation. The general expression of the positive phase pressure–time function was proposed, and the idealized impact pressure curve can be divided into five stages. The impact pressure field of the liquid carbon dioxide blasting system can be divided into three areas at different distances: the explosive jet impact zone, the jet edge zone and the shock wave action zone, and the pressure–contrast distance fitting equation of the liquid carbon dioxide blasting system were obtained.

Hydraulic fracture propagation is hard to predict due to natural joints and crustal stress. This process may lead to uncontrollable changes in hydrogeological conditions. Therefore, prediction and control of fracture propagation are paramount to permeability increase in ore-bearing reservoir. The coupled fluid-solid model was utilized to predict the hydraulic fracture propagation in low-permeability sandstone of a uranium mine. For this study, the model was modified to allow fractures to propagate randomly by using the cohesive zone method. The simulation was developed on a three-step process. First, geological data required to run the model, including crustal stress, strength and permeability, were assembled. Next, fracture propagation under different conditions of stress and injection volume were simulated. In the final step, experimental data required to validate the model were obtained. The simulation results indicate that the principal stress, distribution and orientation of natural fracture have vital influence on fracture propagation and induced complex fracture network. This work provides a theoretical basis for the application of hydraulic fracture in low-permeability sandstone reservoir and ensures the possibility to predict the generation of complex fracture network.

The temporal permeability and damage evolutions of low-permeability sandstone cores during triaxial and long-term dissolution experiments were measured using a triaxial-flow system. Three triaxial experiments were performed on sandstone cores having initial permeability ranging from to . Two sets of long-term dissolution experiments were conducted on cracked sandstone cores. All dissolution experiments were performed at room temperature and using a 10 g/L H₂SO₄ and 0.2 g/L H₂O₂ input solution. Permeability evolution was determined using Darcy’s law. The cores experienced an average increase of 25% in permeability in the dissolution experiment and 900%~1500% increase at the end of the experiment. The dissolution was fairly homogeneous during the long-term experiments whether on the 1 mm scale or the 10 μm scale. The relationship between damage and permeability was speculated and its correlation coefficient has been proved to be close to 1. These results suggest that hydraulic fracturing works well in permeability increase in low-permeability sandstone reservoir.