Laboratory tests have been conducted to investigate the effects of thermal damage on diorite under microwave irradiation. The sample rocks were heated to high temperature range of 300 to 800 ℃ in a single-mode microwave furnace. The experimental results show that the rocks started to crack at 500 ℃ and completely disintegrated at 700 ℃. The intensities of quartz diffraction peaks were almost unchanged while the diffraction peak intensity of hornblende gradually decreased with temperature

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... ing. In addition, the chlorite diffraction peak disappeared at 500 ℃. The compressive strength of the sample decreased to 40% at 600 ℃ and it approached zero at 700 ℃. In this paper, the possible reasons for the thermal effects on the fracture of diorite were discussed, which can be related to water evaporation,