Title: Percussive cutting of hard rocks with point attack picks: dependency of specific energy consumption and number of blows per unit length of cut groove on impact energy and cutting parameters

Authors: Taras Shepel; Carsten Drebenstedt

Addresses: Institute of Mining and Special Civil Engineering, Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, Freiberg 09599, Germany ' Institute of Mining and Special Civil Engineering, Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, Freiberg 09599, Germany

Abstract: The development of sustainable technological solutions for the non-blasting excavation of hard rocks remains at the forefront of efforts of many researchers and engineers worldwide. This paper discusses the applicability of the percussive cutting method with the use of point attack picks for hard rock excavation applications. Based on laboratory test results, regression models describing dependencies of the specific energy consumption and the number of blows per unit length of cut groove on the impact energy and cutting parameters were developed. Several hard rocks such as sandstone, granodiorite and dolomite samples with respective uniaxial compressive strengths of 139 MPa, 205 MPa and 79 MPa, were used in the cutting tests. The study has demonstrated that effective cutting of rocks used in the tests is possible if the single impact energy exceeds 20-30 Joules per mm of cut depth. The currently achievable maximum cutting speed is discussed.

Keywords: percussive cutting; hard rock; point attack pick; specific energy consumption; number of blows per unit length; impact energy; cutting parameters; non-blasting excavation; regression model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2019.104453

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2019 Vol.10 No.2/3/4, pp.217 - 232

Received: 28 Dec 2018
Accepted: 18 Jul 2019
Published online: 12 Jan 2020 *

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