Experimental Investigation of Cuttability Improvement for Hard Rock Fragmentation Using Conical Cutter
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21, Issue 2
Abstract
Stress conditions and preflaws are prominent conditions influencing the cuttability of deep hard rock. This study aims to investigate the cuttability of intact, prefractured, and drilled rocks under biaxial confining stress, uniaxial confining stress, and stress-free conditions using a conical cutter in rock fragmentation tests on true triaxial loading apparatus. Peak cutter force and penetration depth at rock initial fracture and final failure of the rock specimen were used to reflect rock cuttability. The results show that the rock cuttability increases with stress in one direction decreasing under biaxial confining stresses, and presents a decreasing trend followed by an initial increase as uniaxial confining stress increases. The prefractures and boreholes in rock can further improve the rock cuttability, compared with intact rock. A series of cuttability improvement measures were proposed to provide a suitable condition for the application of nonexplosive mechanized mining in hard rock. Finally, comparative field tests were performed on a single-face entryway and a peninsula-shaped pillar, in which the mean value of cutting efficiency increased from 32.6 to 107.7 t/h, and the dust production and cutter wearout failure reduced significantly.
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Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51904333), for which the authors are very thankful.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21 • Issue 2 • February 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 8, 2019
Accepted: Aug 23, 2020
Published online: Nov 30, 2020
Published in print: Feb 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Apr 30, 2021
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