Abstract
Thermomechanical characteristics of rocks such as thermal shock, thermal expansion, thermal cracking were experimentally investigaed using Iksan granite, Cheonan tonalite and Chung-ju dolomite to obtain the basic data for proper design and Chung-ju dolomite to obtain the basic data for proper design and stability analysis of underground structures subjected to temperature changes. The effect of thermal shock did not appear when the heating speed was under 3$^{\circ}C$/min. and there existed little difference between multi-staged cyclic heating and single-cycled heating. Thermal expansion of rocks was affected by mineral composition, crack porosity and the degree of thermal craking. In quartz-beraring multimineralic rocks such as Iksan granite and Cheonan tonalite, the thermal expansion coefficient increaseed continuously with temperature rise, but that of Chung-ju dolomite which was a monomineralic rock showed a constant value for the temperature above 250$^{\circ}C$, Chung-ju dolomite yielded the lowest critical threshold temperature(Tc) of 100$^{\circ}C$ and unstable thermal cracking was initiated above the new threshold temperature(Tc')of 300$^{\circ}C$. Above Tc' thermal cracks grew but they were not interconnected. Iksan granite showed closing of microcracks to the temperature of 100$^{\circ}C$, then expanded linearly to Tc of 200$^{\circ}C$. Above Tc, thermal cracking was initiated and progressed rapidly and almost all the grain boundaries were cracked at 600$^{\circ}C$. Cheonan tonalite also showed similar behavior to iksan granite except that Tc was 350$^{\circ}C$ and that thermal cracks propagated more rapidly. Thermal expansions calculated by Turner's equation were found to be valid in predicting the thermal expansion and cracking behavior of rocks.
