Pilot scale coke oven experiments, in which carbonisation has been arrested after 2 and 4 h, have been used to identify key aspects of the initial formation and propagation of fissuring in coke. The experiments show that the primary fissure network is formed within the first few hours of coking and the fissures propagate towards the centre of the oven as coking progresses. They also show that some of the initially formed fissures stop propagating, thus increasing the effective fissure spacing as coking continues. A model for the propagation of regular crack arrays has been used to identify the cause of the initial formation of the fissure network, evaluate the fissure spacing and explain the fissure coarsening effect. The coarsening is shown to be due to an instability, in the form of every second fissure stopping. The formation of lateral fissures is shown to be due to tensile stress formation near the tips of stopped fissures and also to increased shrinkage due to a maximum in the coke contraction coefficient at around 700 degrees C. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.