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A Statistical Bonded Particle Model Study on Laboratory Scale Rock Drilling
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Solid Mechanics.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1345-0740
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Solid Mechanics.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5206-6894
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Solid Mechanics.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5218-396x
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Geosciences and Environmental Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3593-3786
2025 (English)In: Computational Particle Mechanics, ISSN 2196-4378, Vol. 12, no 6, p. 5251-5264Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Rock drilling is a crucial process in many industries, one example being the mining industry, where it is used for exploration and blasting. In a typical rock drilling process, the rock surface is fractured by dynamic mechanical interaction with a drill bit, resulting in rock fragments detaching from the surface. These cuttings are then transported through the borehole via water or air, and the rock fragment size is important for efficient borehole flushing. In this work, a heterogeneous bonded particle model was calibrated and applied to a laboratory scale rock drilling process. The mineral grain structure was obtained from an electron microscope scan of the rock surface, and the average grain size, volume percentage and stiffness of the three most common minerals were represented in the model. The dynamic mechanical behaviour of the rock material was obtained by conducting uniaxial compression and Brazilian disc tests in a split-Hopkinson pressure bar configuration. The results were used to calibrate the model. After the heterogeneous model was shown to be able to capture the macroscopic strengths and fracture modes of the split-Hopkinson experiments, it was used to simulate the laboratory scale rock drilling experiment, where two tool indentation depths were investigated. Here, the simulation was compared to experimental results in terms of vertical load acting on the tool, machine compliance as well as rock-cutting size distributions. The results from the simulation were in good agreement with the experimental observations.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2025. Vol. 12, no 6, p. 5251-5264
Keywords [en]
Rock, Drilling, Bonded particle model (BPM), Heterogeneous BPM, Discrete element method (DEM), Split-Hopkinson pressure bar
National Category
Mechanical Engineering
Research subject
Solid Mechanics; Ore Geology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-104683DOI: 10.1007/s40571-025-00984-3ISI: 001512257100001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105008465610OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-104683DiVA, id: diva2:1845692
Projects
DigiRock
Funder
Vinnova, 2021-04695
Note

Fulltext license: CC BY;

This article has previously appeared as a manuscript in a thesis.

Available from: 2024-03-19 Created: 2024-03-19 Last updated: 2026-04-01
In thesis
1. Heterogeneous Bonded Particle Modelling of Rock Fracture
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Heterogeneous Bonded Particle Modelling of Rock Fracture
2024 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The dynamic fracture process of rock materials is of importance for several industries, such as the rock drilling process in geothermal and mining applications. Gaining knowledge and understanding of dynamic rock fracture through numerical simulations can enhance the rock drilling process, for example by optimising the drill bit geometry and drilling parameters. In order for a numerical simulation of rock fracture processes to be accurate, the model needs to be able to capture key aspects of rock materials. Generally, rock materials are said to be britle and heterogeneous. The heterogeneity is partly due to the varying mechanical properties of constituent minerals, and partly due to the varying sizes, shapes, and directions of these minerals. The main objective of this thesis is the development of a heterogeneous rock model to be used for dynamic drilling processes. In the first article in this thesis, a heterogeneous bonded particle model is developed. Here, the heterogeneity is introduced in two steps – a geometrical heterogeneity using statistically distributed grain shapes and sizes, and a mechanical heterogeneity by distributing bonding parameters using a Weibull distribution. The model is applied to the quasi-static Brazilian disc test and a parametric study is conducted on the heterogeneity index and intergranular cement strength. The results show that crack initiation and propagation are highly dependent on the degree of heterogeneity. In general, the model was found to replicate typical phenomena associated with britle heterogeneous materials, for example unpredictability of macroscopic strength and crack properties. In the second paper of this thesis, an extensive dynamic experimental characterization of two igneous rock materials – Kuru grey granite and Kuru black diorite – is conducted. Here, a Split-Hopkinson configuration together with high-speed photography and digital image correlation is utilized to obtain the compressive and indirect tensile behavior of the rock materials. By using a significantly high frame rate of 671,000 fps in the digital image correlation analysis, it is shown that the point in time for crack initiation in the Brazilian disc can be estimated. From this, it is shown that the main splititng crack in the Brazilian disc occurs at 70 and 77 % for the two rock materials. In the third paper of this thesis, the heterogeneous bonded particle model from the first paper is further developed and calibrated using the dynamic experimental data for Kuru black diorite from the second paper. In contrast to the first paper, where one Weibull distribution is used, three Weibull distributions are used here. The first distribution is used for assigning average bonding parameters of the grains, the second for the intragranular bonding parameters and the third for the bonding parameters of the intergranular cementing. First, a homogeneous bonded particle model, i.e., without heterogeneous grains and no statistical distribution of bonding parameters, is calibrated so that the average experimental results are replicated. Then, using this homogeneously calibrated model, the heterogeneous model is activated, and a parametric study is conducted on the heterogeneity index for the average grain properties and the intergranular cement strength. The results show that this modelling approach is able to capture key phenomena of dynamic rock fracture, such as stochastic crack initiation and propagation, as well as peak stress, overloading, strain rate and crack propagation time. In the fourth paper, the proposed heterogeneous bonded particle model from previous papers is validated using a laboratory rock drilling experiment. The rock material is dynamically characterized using the methodology from the second paper and the grain structure is obtained from a scan of the rock surface. Three of the constituent minerals are represented in the model in terms of their size, occurrence, and mechanical properties. Furthermore, the model is calibrated in both compression and tension, where both the peak stress values and fracture behavior are captured. The model is then used to simulate the laboratory rock drilling experiment, where crater depth, load and rock fragment sizes are compared with the experiments. The results show that the simulation is able to capture peak load values and the rock fragment sizes are similar to that of the experiments.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Luleå: Luleå University of Technology, 2024
Series
Doctoral thesis / Luleå University of Technology, ISSN 1402-1544
Keywords
Rock, DEM, BPM, fracture, drilling, dynamic
National Category
Other Civil Engineering
Research subject
Solid Mechanics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-104684 (URN)978-91-8048-505-0 (ISBN)978-91-8048-506-7 (ISBN)
Public defence
2024-05-16, E632, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, 09:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2024-03-21 Created: 2024-03-19 Last updated: 2025-10-21Bibliographically approved

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Wessling, AlbinLarsson, SimonKajberg, JörgenWarlo, Mathis

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