Experimental investigation of the effects of supercritical carbon dioxide on fracture toughness of bituminous coals

Effects of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) on fracture toughness of bituminous coals are studied. The semi-circular specimens under three-point bending (SCB) were adopted for conducting experiments on the coal samples after being immersed in scCO2 for different soaking periods. To investigate the fracture toughness in different loading conditions, including pure mode I, pure mode II, and mixed mode I/II, the inclination angles of the...