Abstract
The high-temperature rock drilling is a key process in the exploitation of the hot-dry-rock (HDR) geothermal energy. Understanding the abrasive characteristics of HDR is critical for drilling efficiency and cost. Therefore, this study investigates the wear mechanism and cutting/scratch evolutions of granite under temperatures from 25 °C to 500 °C by using the Cerchar abrasive test. The results show that: (1) The Cerchar Abrasivity Index (CAI) of granite decreases with the increasing temperature and three characteristic decreasing stages can be found. (2) The CAI of granite and the average cutting force exerted on its surface during sliding exhibit a similar trend as temperature increases, the high temperature treatment reduces the cutting force during sliding. (3) Observing the scratches, it is found that the cutting force increases sharply and aggravates the wear of the steel stylus when the steel stylus encounters minerals with higher hardness such as quartz or biotite. (4) There is a significant negative correlation between the instantaneous cutting force and the scratch depth during sliding. In other words, the higher the instantaneous cutting force, the smaller the scratch depth, and high temperature treatment can reduce the penetration depth of the steel stylus. These data and laws provide important reference for HDR geothermal development and drilling processes to improve drilling efficiency and reduce development costs.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The authors will supply the relevant data in response to reasonable requests.
References
Lv, T., Zhu, Q., Lu, H. & Li, X. in International Conference on Energy and Environment Technology. 683–686 (IEEE). (2009).
Rohit, R. et al. Tracing the evolution and charting the future of geothermal energy research and development. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 184, 113531 (2023).
Capik, M. & Yilmaz, A. O. Correlation between cerchar abrasivity index, rock properties, and drill bit lifetime. Arab. J. Geosci. 10, 15 (2017).
Rostami, J., Ghasemi, A., Alavi Gharahbagh, E., Dogruoz, C. & Dahl, F. Study of dominant factors affecting cerchar abrasivity index. Rock Mech. Rock Eng. 47, 1905–1919 (2014).
Ji, Y., Wang, L., Zheng, Y. & Wu, W. Temperature-dependent abrasivity of Bukit Timah granite and implications for drill bit wear in thermo-mechanical drilling. Acta Geotech. 16, 885–893 (2021).
Deliormanlı, A. H. Cerchar abrasivity index (CAI) and its relation to strength and abrasion test methods for marble stones. Constr. Build. Mater. 30, 16–21 (2012).
Plinninger, R., Kaesling, H., Thuro, K. & Spaun, G. Testing conditions and Geomechanical properties influencing the CERCHAR abrasiveness index (CAI) value. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 40, 259–263 (2003).
Capik, M. & Yilmaz, A. O. Development models for the drill bit lifetime prediction and bit wear types. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 139, 104633 (2021).
Wang, L., Guo, K. & Wu, W. Abrasivity measurement of brittle rock after thermal treatment. Measurement 212, 112710 (2023).
Kahraman, S., Saygin, E. & Fener, M. The effect of microwave treatment on the abrasivity of igneous rocks. Arab. J. Geosci. 17, 21 (2024).
Abu Bakar, M., Ali, H. & Majeed, Y. Effects of heat treatment and confining pressure on rock abrasivity and its ramifications for bit wear and drillability in deep geothermal reservoirs. Rock Mech. Rock Eng. 56, 8191–8208 (2023).
Suana, M. & Peters, T. The cerchar abrasivity index and its relation to rock mineralogy and petrography. Rock. Mech. 15, 1–8 (1982).
Alber, M. et al. In the ISRM Suggested Methods for Rock characterization, Testing and Monitoring: 2007–2014 101–106 (Springer, 2014).
Al-Ameen, S. & Waller, M. The influence of rock strength and abrasive mineral content on the cerchar abrasive index. Eng. Geol. 36, 293–301 (1994).
Yin, T., Li, X., Cao, W. & Xia, K. Effects of thermal treatment on tensile strength of Laurentian granite using Brazilian test. Rock Mech. Rock Eng. 48, 2213–2223 (2015).
Zhao, Y., Wan, Z., Feng, Z., Xu, Z. & Liang, W. Evolution of mechanical properties of granite at high temperature and high pressure. Geomech. Geophys. Geo-Energy Geo-Resources. 3, 199–210 (2017).
Mo, C., Zhao, J. & Zhang, D. Real-time measurement of mechanical behavior of granite during heating–cooling cycle: a mineralogical perspective. Rock Mech. Rock Eng. 55, 4403–4422 (2022).
Rostamsowlat, I. Effect of cutting tool properties and depth of cut in rock cutting: an experimental study. Rock Mech. Rock Eng. 51, 1715–1728 (2018).
Jeong, H., Choi, S. & Lee, Y. K. Evaluation of cutting performance of a TBM disc cutter and cerchar abrasivity index based on the brittleness and properties of rock. Appl. Sci. 13, 2612 (2023).
Li, M. et al. Effects of thermal treatment on the dynamic mechanical properties of coal measures sandstone. Rock Mech. Rock Eng. 49, 3525–3539 (2016).
Yang, S. Q., Ranjith, P., Jing, H. W., Tian, W. L. & Ju, Y. An experimental investigation on thermal damage and failure mechanical behavior of granite after exposure to different high temperature treatments. Geothermics 65, 180–197 (2017).
Wong, L. N. Y., Zhang, Y. & Wu, Z. Rock strengthening or weakening upon heating in the mild temperature range? Eng. Geol. 272, 105619 (2020).
Zhang, F. et al. Nanoindentation tests on granite after heat treatment. Rock Soil. Mech 39, (2018).
Kolawole, O. & Ispas, I. Evaluation of Geomechanical properties via scratch tests: where are we and where do we go from here? SN Appl. Sci. 2, 1633 (2020).
Thakur, M., Choudhary, B. S. & Seervi, V. An investigation into the effect of rock properties on drill bit life. J. Institution Eng. (India): Ser. D. 105, 655–664 (2024).
Huang, Y. H. et al. Physical and mechanical behavior of granite containing pre-existing holes after high temperature treatment. Archives Civil Mech. Eng. 17, 912–925 (2017).
Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing, China (Grant No. 3232026), the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No. 52574182), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant 2025ZKPYNY03), and the Educa-tion Foundation Of China University Of Mining & Technology-Beijing“ Fluidized mining of deep solid coal re-sources” (Grant XD2021018). The authors would also like to thank the journal editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions.
Funding
The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant NO. 52574182), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant 2025ZKPYNY03), the Education Foundation Of China University Of Mining & Technology-Beijing” Fluidized mining of deep solid coal resources” (Grant XD2021018).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Xvsheng Rui: Writing - Original Draft and Validation, Hongwei Zhang: Review & Editing, Qingshuai Yang: Formal analysis, Tianhua Yang: Investigation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethics declarations
The authors declare no competing interests,
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, Q., Zhang, H., Rui, X. et al. Investigation of the cutting effects on high-temperature granite based on cerchar abrasivity test. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38206-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38206-2
