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Rock Failure and Crack Propagation Beneath Disc Cutters

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Abstract

Analyses of rock failure mechanisms beneath disc cutters are presented. Full-scale cutting tests are conducted to assess the global energy input in comparison with rock chips and excavated volume. Small-scale cutting tests are subsequently used for macro- and microscopic analyses of rupture modes and crack propagation. A high spatial resolution allows to obtain pictures of crack networks in different rock types. It is shown that all specimens develop lateral cracks in sufficiently confined areas whereas median cracks typically develop in boundary regions. Regarding cutting forces, a hypothesis is proposed that associates sudden force drops accompanied by sudden sound emission with grain crushing in the proximity of the cutter tip.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Dr. Christian Frenzel for the supervision of cutting tests and in-depth discussions about disc cutting and to Brian Asbury for the guidance and assistance provided. Stefan Lorenz contributed significantly during small-scale cutting testing for which we are very thankful. We would like to thank Thomas Schifko for the preparation of thin sections. The help of Dr. Nina Gegenhuber, Dr. Beate Oswald-Tranta and Mario Sorger is much appreciated. We would also like to thank the reviewers of this paper for their helpful comments. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of this work by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) within the Eurostars project E!5514.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Subsurface Engineering, Montanuniversität Leoben, Erzherzog-Johann-Straße 3, 8700, Leoben, Austria

    Martin Entacher, E. Schuller & R. Galler

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  1. Martin Entacher
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  2. E. Schuller
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  3. R. Galler
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Correspondence to Martin Entacher.

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Entacher, M., Schuller, E. & Galler, R. Rock Failure and Crack Propagation Beneath Disc Cutters. Rock Mech Rock Eng 48, 1559–1572 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-014-0661-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-014-0661-2

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