Heat shock is a feasible means to break rock mass in engineering duo to the
large additional thermal stress caused by thermal expansion. This paper
established a coupled thermal transfer and rock deformation model based on the
energy conservation and the elastic deformation theory of rock. In the model,
the failure and damage of rock are judged according to the Drucker-Prager
criterion. A finite element method of COMSOL Multiphysics to study the
characteristics of temperature, stress distribution and damage zone on a rock
surface is proposed. Results show that the failure of rock mass occurs at the
cusps of the heater first duo to stress concentration and then grows at both
sides of the heater greatly.