Thermoelastic deformation associated with a lava tube |
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| Authors: | Michele Dragoni Antonello Piombo |
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| Institution: | (1) Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, Viale Carlo Berti Pichat 8, 40127 Bologna, Italy |
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| Abstract: | Active lava tubes have much higher temperatures than the surrounding rocks. Any change in the tube temperature produces a
change in the temperature distribution in the rocks and induces a thermoelastic deformation in them. We calculate such a deformation
by solving the equilibrium equation of linear thermoelasticity. We assume that the initial temperature distribution in the
medium is the steady-state solution of the heat equation for a very long cylindrical tube at constant temperature, embedded
in a medium with uniform thermal conductivity. We calculate the displacement and stress fields in the medium following to
a temperature change of the tube. A temperature increase produces a dilatation of the medium and a contraction of the tube,
while a temperature decrease produces the opposite effect. For a temperature change equal to 100 K, thermal stresses in the
order of 10 MPa are produced, which are large enough to fracture the rocks surrounding the tube. |
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| Keywords: | Lava tube Thermoelasticity Displacement field Thermal stress Rock fracturing |
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