Physical and mechanical properties of sandstone containing a single fissure after exposure to high temperatures

In order to investigate the physical and mechanical properties of sandstone containing fissures after exposure to high temperatures, fissures with different angles α were prefabricated in the plate sandstone samples, and the processed samples were then heated at 5 different temperatures. Indoor uniaxial compression was conducted to analyze the change rules of physical properties of sandstone after exposure to high temperature, and the deformation, strength and failure characteristics of sandstone containing fissures. The results show that, with increasing temperature, the volume of sandstone increases gradually while the quality and density decrease gradually, and the color of sandstone remains basically unchanged while the brightness increases markedly when the temperature is higher than 585 °C; the peak strength of sandstone containing fissures first decreases then increases when the temperature is between 25 °C and 400 °C. The peak strain of sandstone containing fissures increases gradually while the average modulus decreases gradually with increasing temperature, and the mechanical properties of sandstone show obvious deterioration after 400 °C. The peak strain of sandstone containing fissures increases gradually while the average modulus decreases gradually with increasing temperature; with increasing angle α of the fissure, the evolution characteristics of the macro-mechanical parameters of sandstone are closely related to the their own mechanical properties. When the temperature is 800 °C, the correlation between the peak strength and average modulus of sandstone and the angle α of the fissure is obviously weakened. The failure modes of sandstone containing fissures after high temperature exposure are of three different kinds including: tensile crack failure, tensile and shear cracks mixed failure, and shear crack failure. Tensile and shear crack mixed failure occur mainly at low temperatures and small angles; tensile crack failure occurs at high temperatures and large angles.