Weakening of Compressive Strength of Granite by Piezoelectric Actuation of Quartz Using High-Frequency and High-Voltage Alternating Current: A 3D Numerical Study

Abstract

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 piezoelectric actuation is developed. The rock material is modelled as heterogeneous and isotropic. However, the piezoelectric properties of quartz are anisotropic. The governing global piezoelectro-mechanical problem is solved in a staggered manner explicitly in time. Numerical simulations predict that the weakening effect on compressive strength of granite is 10% with the excitation frequency and voltage of 274.4 kHz and 150 kV of the pretreatment. As the weakening effect takes place at a natural frequency of the numerical rock sample, the quartz content has only a slight effect on the frequency at which maximum weakening occurs. Moreover, the weakening effect depends strongly on the orientation of the quartz crystals. In a more practical application of simulating low-rate compression of a sphere-shaped rock sample, a weakening effect of 8% after the HF-HV-AC pretreatment was predicted.