Theoretical and numerical studies of rock breaking mechanism by double disc cutters

A plane mechanical model of rock breaking process by double disc cutter at the center of the cutterhead is established based on contact mechanics to analyze the stress evolution in the rock broken by cutters with different spacings. A continuous-discontinuous coupling numerical method based on zero-thickness cohesive elements is developed to simulate rock breaking using double cutters. The process, mechanism,and characteristics of rock breaking are comprehensively analyzed from five aspects: peak force, breaking form, breaking efficiency, crack mode, and breaking degree. The results show that under the penetrating action of cutters, dense cores are formed due to shear failure under respective cutters. The tensile cracks propagate in the rock, and then rock chips form with increasing penetration depth. When the cutter spacing is increased from 10 to 80 mm, the peak force gradually increases, the rock breaking range increases first and then decreases, the specific energy decreases first and then rises, and the breaking coefficient of intermediate rock decreases from 0.955 to 0.788. The area of rock breaking is positively correlated with the length of the tensile crack. Furthermore, the length of the tensile crack accounts for 14.4%–33.6% of the total crack length.

Theoretical and numerical simulation investigation of deep hole dispersed charge cut blasting

Drilling and blasting methods have been used as a common driving technique for shallow-hole driving and blasting in rock roadways.With the advent of digital electronic detonators and the need for increased production efciency,the traditional blasting design is no longer suitable for deep hole blasting.In this paper,a disperse charge cut blasting method was proposed to address the issues of low excavation depth and high block rate in deep hole undercut blasting.First,a blasting model was used to illustrate the mechanism of the deep hole dispersive charge cut blasting process.Then,continuous charge and dispersed charge blasting models were developed using the smooth particle hydrodynamics-fnite element method(SPHFEM).The cutting parameters were determined theoretically,and the cutting efciency was introduced to evaluate the cutting efect.The blasting efects of the two charging models were analyzed utilizing the evolution law of rock damage,the number of rock particles thrown,and the cutting efciency.The results show that using a dispersed charge improves the cutting efciency by about 20%and the rock breakage for the deep hole cut blasting compared to the traditional continuous charge.In addition,important parameters such as cutting hole spacing,cutting hole depth and upper charge proportion also have a signifcant impact on the cutting efect.Finally,the deep hole dispersed charge cut blasting technology is combined with the digital electronic detonator through the feld engineering practice.It provides a reference for the subsequent deep hole cutting blasting and the use of electronic detonators in rock roadways.

Compound-mode crack propagation law of PMMA semicirculararch roadway specimens under impact loading

An underground roadway usually contains defects of various types,and when the roadway is subjected to external loading,the locations of those defects influence the roadway by differing degrees.In this study,to study how the locations of defects affect crack propagation in a roadway,specimens with tunnel-type voids were made using polymethyl methacrylate,and the stress wave produced by a bullet impacting an incident rod was used as the impact load.Meanwhile,the variations in crack speed,displacement,and dynamic stress intensity factor during crack propagation were obtained using an experimental system of digital laser dynamic caustics,and the commercial software ABAQUS was used for numerical simulations.From the experiments and numerical simulations,the crack propagation path was verified and the impact fracture behavior of a semicircular-arch roadway with different defect positions was presented.The results show that when the pre-fabricated crack is on the central axis of the sample,the crack propagation is purely mode I;when the pre-fabricated crack is 5 mm from the central axis,the crack propagation alternates between mode I and a mixture of modes I and II;when the pre-fabricated crack is at the edge of the semicircular-arch roadway,the crack propagation follows the I-II mixed mode.