In deep geoengineering, including geothermal development, deep mining, and nuclear waste geological disposal, high temperature significantly affects the mineral properties of rocks, thereby changing their porous and mechanical characteristics. This paper experimentally studied the changes in mineral composition, pore structure, and mechanical characteristics of pyroxene granite heated to high temperature (from 25 °C to 1200 °C). The results concluded that (1) the high-temperature effect can be roughly identified as three stages: 25–500 °C, 500–800 °C, 800–1200 °C. (2) Below 500 °C, the maximum diffracted intensities of the essential minerals are comparatively stable and the porous and mechanical characteristics of granite samples change slightly, mainly due to mineral dehydration and uncoordinated thermal expansion; additionally, the failure mechanism of granite is brittle. (3) In 500–800 °C, the diffraction angles of the minerals become wider, pyroxene and quartz undergo phase transitions, and the difference in thermal expansion among minerals reaches a peak; the rock porosity increases rapidly by 1.95 times, and the newly created pores caused by high heat treatment are mainly medium ones with radii between 1 μm and 10 μm; the P-wave velocity and the elastic modulus decrease by 62.5% and 34.6%, respectively, and the peak strain increases greatly by 105.7%, indicating the failure mode changes from brittle to quasi-brittle. (4) In 800–1200 °C, illite and quartz react chemically to produce mullite and the crystal state of the minerals deteriorate dramatically; the porous and mechanical parameters of granite samples all change significantly and the P-wave, the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), and the elastic modulus decrease by 81.30%, 81.20%, and 92.52%, while the rock porosity and the shear-slip strain increase by 4.10 times and 11.37 times, respectively; the failure mechanism of granite samples transforms from quasi-brittle to plastic, which also was confirmed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Both surface and underground rocks in nature often undergo repeated drying and wetting. The dry-wet cycle is a weathering effect that includes physical and chemical processes, which has varying degrees of degradation effects on the physical and mechanical properties of rocks. This paper analyzes and discusses this kind of rock degradation based on the existing literature data. First, the deterioration degree of various physical and mechanical properties (including density, P-wave velocity, porosity, static and dynamic compressive/tensile strength, and fracture toughness) is summarized as the number of dry-wet cycles increases. Secondly, the possible degradation mechanism of the dry-wet cycle is explained in terms of clay mineral swelling, solute migration, and microcrack evolution. Then, the damage constitutive model of the rock after cyclic dry-wet treatment is introduced. Finally, the issues that need to be studied in the future are put forward.

Heat treatment on shale reservoirs can promote the development of secondary fractures in a matrix on the basis of hydraulic fracturing, forming multi-scale gas–water seepage channels and strengthening the gas desorption. Experimental evidence shows that heat treatment can enhance gas recovery in the same mining life. Heat treatment on a shale gas reservoir is a multi-physical and multi-phase coupling process. However, how the thermal stimulation interacts with nonlinear two-phase flow in heterogeneous shale volume fracturing has not been clear. In this paper, a fully coupled THGM model for heating-enhanced shale-gas recovery in heterogeneous shale reservoirs is proposed. First, the governing equations are formulated for the shale-reservoir deformation involving both gas adsorption and thermal expansion, the permeability evolution model for the cracking process of fractured shale, the gas–water two-phase continuity equation considering the effects of gas solubility and the heat transfer equation for heat conduction and convection. The interactions among stress, temperature and seepage in a heterogeneous shale reservoir were studied. Secondly, a test on shale permeability after 50 °C temperature treatment was conducted. The evolution of temperature, capillary pressure, water and gas saturation and the permeability of shale during the heat treatment of the reservoir were numerically analyzed. Finally, the gas production from a shale gas reservoir was numerically simulated with this THGM model. The numerical results indicated that the thermal-induced fracturing, gas desorption and separation from water make predominant contributions to the evolution of permeability. The heat treatment can enhance cumulative gas production by 58.7% after 27.4 years of heat injection through promoting gas desorption and matrix diffusion.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) may infiltrate into the caprock and displace brine water in the caprock layer. This causes two effects: one is the caprock swelling induced by the CO₂ adsorption and the other is the caprock dehydration and shrinkage due to CO₂–brine water two-phase flow. The competition of these two effects challenges the caprock sealing efficiency. To study the evolution mechanism of the caprock properties, a numerical model is first proposed to investigate the combined effects of CO₂ adsorption-induced expansion and dehydration-induced shrinkage on the caprock sealing efficiency. In this model, the caprock matrix is fully saturated by brine water in its initial state and the fracture network has only a brine water–CO₂ two-phase flow. With the diffusion of CO₂ from the fractures into the caprock matrix, the CO₂ sorption and matrix dehydration can alter the permeability of the caprock and affect the entry capillary pressure. Second, this numerical model is validated with a breakthrough test. The effects of the two-phase flow on the water saturation, CO₂ adsorption on the swelling strain, and dehydration on the shrinkage strain are studied, respectively. Third, the permeability evolution mechanism in the CO₂–brine water mixed zone is investigated. The effect of dehydration on the penetration depth is also analyzed. It is found that both the shale matrix dehydration and CO₂ sorption-induced swelling can significantly alter the sealing efficiency of the fractured caprock.

Wellbores are largely constructed during coal mining, shale gas production, and geothermal exploration. Studying the shape and size of the disturbed zone in surrounding rock is of great significance for wellbore stability control. In this paper, a theoretical model for elastic-plastic-damage analysis around a deep circular wellbore under non-uniform compression is proposed. Based on the elastoplastic softening constitutive model and Mohr-Coulomb strength criterion, the analytical expressions of stresses in the elastic, plastic and damaged zones around a circle wellbore are derived. Further, the boundary line equations among the three zones are obtained according to the conditions of stress continuity. Then, the influence rules of non-uniform in-situ stress and mechanical parameters on the stress distribution and plastic zone size in surrounding rock mass are analyzed. The plastic and the damaged zones are both approximately elliptical in shape. When the lateral stress coefficient of the in-situ stress field takes the value 1, the model degenerates into the Yuan Wenbo’s Solution. If the brittleness coefficient of the surrounding rock is 0, the model degenerates into the Kastner’s Equation. Finally, the results are compared with those under two special cases (in the elastoplastic softening rock under a uniform stress field, in the ideal elastoplastic rock under a non-uniform stress field) and a common approximation method (the perturbation method).

In this paper, in order to understand the development process and influencing factors of coal underground gasification, taking the two-dimensional underground gasification area of the plane as the simulation object, the characteristics of the multi-physical field coupling process of exudate mass heat transfer and combustion gasification reaction in the process of horizontal coal seam underground gasification are analyzed, and a two-dimensional mathematical model of thermal-hydrological-mechanical-chemical coupling of a porous medium is established. The temperature distribution of coal rock from the gasification point, the distribution of gas water vapor pressure and stress-strain, the temperature contour distribution of fractured coal rocks of different densities of heterogeneity, and the influence of different water-oxygen ratios and different fractured coal rocks on the gas components generated by the gasification reaction were studied. The results show that the tensile damage caused by the tensile strain volume expansion of the coal underground gasification center, the shear damage caused by the compression of the edge compressive strain volume, and the temperature conduction rate decrease with the increase in the coal rock fracture, but in the heterogeneous coal rock, the greater the fracture density, the faster the temperature conduction rate, which has a certain impact on the gasification combustion reaction. The ratio of CO₂, H₂ and CO in the case of simulating that the water-to-oxygen ratio is 1:2, 1:1, and 2:1 is 1:0.85:0.73, 1:1.1:0.97, and 1:1.76:1.33, respectively. At a water-oxygen ratio of 2:1, the concentration ratio is the most ideal, and the main gases, CO, CO₂, and H₂, are 32%, 21%, and 37%. Furthermore, the reaction rate increases with the increase of fracture density. The gas component concentration simulated in this paper has good consistency with the results of the previous experimental data, which has important guiding significance for the underground coal gasification project.