As rock deformation,fracture and energy exchange with outer environment happen at the same time, the rationality to study rock destruction with energy methods is discussed in this paper. For there are many kinds of energy in the deformation of rock such as elastic energy, plastic energy, surface energy, radiation energy, kinetic energy etc, authors anatomize the process of energy transformation among these energies, calculation theories, different effect on rock fracture, and study energy dissipation and energy release in different deformation process in macroscopic and microcosmic aspects. In microscopic aspect, rock storages energy in the form of elasticity energy and dissipates energy by damage evolving in the initial deformation stage and releases plenty of energy in later stage. In microcosmic aspect, there are many factors which can harden or soften the rock. Whether the rock storages energy or releases energy is determined by the final results of these microcosmic factors′competition. And the theoretical equation of energy transformation is deduced. On the base of test, transformation and balance, as well as ration between dissipation energy and release energy are studied. Finally, this paper demonstrates that energy dissipation leads to the strength reduction, while energy release results in the catastrophic failure of rocks. Consequently, from the viewpoint of energy dissipation and energy release to study the failure of rock, we could understand the essential physical mechanism of rock deformation and fracture, find out the true reason for rock failure, and offer reference to the engineering practice.
