The influence of liquid nitrogen cooling on fracture toughness of granite rocks at elevated temperatures: An experimental study

In order to investigate the fracture toughness of granite samples after elevated temperature treatment and liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling, a series of fracturing tests were performed on semi-circular bend (SCB) specimens containing pure mode-I fracture. The acoustic emission (AE) technique was employed to monitor the damage process during the test. The experimental results indicate that, overall, the fracture toughness of LN2-treated granite...