Rock Breakage

Session 6
Drilling Machines and Operations

Jian Zhao

Drilling Machines and Operations

Session Contents

• Drilling machines and

drilling bits
• Drill rate and drillability
estimations
• Drilling operations in
mining © Atlas Copco

2
 Drilling Machines and Bits

Classification of Rock Drilling Machines

Rock drilling machines can be classified by size,

drilling direction and features. However, their
drilling actions belong:
• Rotary: Cutting rock by drill bits pressed to rock
and rotate.
• Percussion: Crushing rock by impact indentation.
• Rotary-Percussion: Combining both rotary and
percussion

Drilling Machines and Bits

Rotary Rock Drilling

Rotary drilling can be open hole type and coring

type.
Rock in the open hole drilling are crushed flushed
out by drill fluid circulation.
Coring enables to extract rock cores from drilling
and is commonly used for site investigation.
Drill fluid is circulated through hollow steel rods.

4
 Drilling Machines and Bits

Common Rotary Rock

Drilling Bits

Drag bits (wing bits): for

soft rocks © kcbits.com

Roller bits (tricone): for

medium to hard rocks
PDC bits: for hard and © tricon.com.au

abrasive rocks
© bakerhughes.com

Diamond coring bits: for

obtaining rock cores © atlas copco

Drilling Machines and Bits

Common Rotary Rock Drilling Machines

Rotary drilling machines for soft rocks. They use

drag bits, for open hole drilling.
Rotary drilling machines for medium to hard rocks.
They use tricone roller bits with tungsten carbide
button bits or PDC bits. They drill open holes and
are commonly used for oil and gas, directional
drilling.
Rock coring machines are for rock core sampling
and used primarily for geological exploration.

6
 Drilling Machines and Bits

Percussion Rock Drilling

Percussion drilling applies impact to button or

threaded bits, breaks rock by impact indentation.
The percussion can be delivered at top or inside the
drillhole.
Drilling head rotates to change to position of impact,
but not performing rock breaking. It is not rotary-
percussion drilling.
Crushed rock are flushed out primarily by air.

Drilling Machines and Bits

Common Percussion
Drilling Bits

Tungsten carbide button bits: © sandvik

© sinodrills.com
for top hammer machines.
Carbide cross bits: for top
hammer machines.
Hammering button bits: for
Down-the-Hole machine.

© epiroc
8

8
 Drilling Machines and Bits

Common Percussion Drilling Machines

Top hammer percussion drilling machines are

commonly used for blasthole, exploration hole with
relative shallow depth. Cyclic Impact is applied on
the top of the drilling rod, mostly by hydraulic
machines.
Down-the-Hole hammer percussion drilling
machines are for deep holes. Cyclic Impact is
applied down the hole, on drill head close to the bits,
by compressed air.

Drilling Machines and Bits

Rotary-Percussion Drilling Machines

Rotary-percussion drilling
uses a rotary button bits
for rotary drilling action, Percussion

while percussion impact is

inserted on the drill head.
This allows the drilling
combining both rotary and
percussion rock breaking Rotary
actions.
© terelion.com

10

10
 Drilling Machines and Bits

Selection of Drill Machines (I)

Selection of drill machine is depending on:

• Function: Machine usually designated for specific
functions, e.g., blasting, bolting, oil and gas
production, geological exploration, whether
casing required, single or multiple holes, vertical
or horizontal. For drill-and-blast, multi-arm drilling
machine (drilling jumbo) are commonly used to
save drilling time.

11

11

Drilling Machines and Bits

Selection of Drill Machines (II)

Selection of drill machine is depending on:

• Hole diameter: Mostly a few cm for blast and
exploration. Large diameters for oil and gas
requires special machine.
• Depth: Blast hole is a few m to a few 10 m.
Shallow holes can use top hammer, while deep
holes are suited for DTH hammering type.
• Rock strength: High strength required high power.

12

12
 Drilling Machines and Bits

Selection of Drill Bits

Selection of drill bits is primarily depending on rock

strength and hardness, in addition to machine type.
Soft rocks: drag bits
Medium to hard rock: tungsten carbide button bits,
tricone bits
Hard to very hard rocks: carbide cross bits, PDC
bits.
Diamond coring bits are used for all rocks.

13

13

Drilling Rate and Drillability

Drilling Rate and Drill Performance

Drilling rate can be estimated from machine power,

hole diameter, specific energy, pressure and rotary
speed.
There are a number of empirical equations
developed for percussion and rotary drilling, to
estimate drilling or penetration rate.
Hourly rate can be computed from instantaneous
drill rate and drilling efficiency.

14

14
 Drilling Rate and Drillability

Drilling Rate of Percussion Drill

Percussion drill Penetration Rate (Rp) can be

estimated as:
4PT!
Rp =
πD" E
P: power output of drill;
Tr: ratio of energy transferred to the rock and
energy available for each blow (usually 0.6-0.8);
D: hole diameter;
E: specific energy.
15

15

Drilling Rate and Drillability

Drilling Rate of Rotary Drill

Rotary drill Drilling Rate (Rr) can be estimated as:

2πNT
Rr =
AE
N: rotary speed;
T: torque;
A: hole cross section area;
E: specific energy.

16

16
 Drilling Rate and Drillability

Estimation of Drilling Rate at Site

Instantaneous or operating drilling rate can be

obtained from site during drilling, typically
measured as drilling depth per minute.
Hourly rate is also influenced by the machine
utilization, operating time per hour.

Hourly drilling rate (m/hr) =

Drilling efficiency (min/hr) x
Operating drilling rate (m/min)

17

17

Drilling Rate and Drillability

Rock Drillability and Drilling Rate

Rock drillability is a measure for the ease of drilling

a hole in rock. Rock drillability is depending on the
rock properties:
• Rock hardness
• Rock texture and density
• Rock fracture pattern
Drilling rate is governed by rock drillability, machine
and operation parameters.

18

18
 Drilling Rate and Drillability

Rock Drillability Index Determination

The Drillability Index developed by NTNU is

commonly used. It provides the estimation for
penetration rates and cutter wear.
It is based on 3 indexes that can be determined
from laboratory tests:
• Drilling rate index (DRI)
• Bit wear index (BWI)
• Cutter life index

19

19

Drilling Operations

Drilling in Drill-and-Blast Rock Excavation

Drillholes for blast usually are a few to a few 10 m in

surface and underground mining. Mostly top
hammer drilling machines are used.
For underground pilot blasting, often drilling jumbos
with multiple drilling arms are used, as drilling
depth is usually a few m and closely spaced.
Common blast hole diameter is between 25 to 100
mm.

20

20
 Drilling Operations

Surface Drilling for Rock Blasting

Top hammer drilling

machines are mostly
used.

© sandvik

© quarrymagazine.com

21

21

Drilling Operations

Underground Drilling for Rock Blasting

Drilling jumbo is often

© AlpTransit Gotthard
used in underground.

© Atlas Copco
© Atlas Copco

22

22
 Drilling Operations

Drilling in Mineral Exploration

Drilling used for mineral exploration can be

percussion open hole drilling for quick exploratory
probing, or diamond coring to obtain ore and rock
samples for mineral analysis and resource
estimation.
Mining and tunnelling geological investigation when
samples are needed requires definitely diamond
coring. Rock core diameters are mostly around 50-
150 mm.

23

23

Drilling Operations

Rock Coring Methods and Techniques

Rotary Power rotation of a core bit Coring through all type
coring cutting and barrel collecting of rocks, and obtaining
rock, with water circulation core samples with
removing ground-up material diameter from 50 to
and cooling core bit. 150 mm.
Wire-line As rotary coring. Core As rotary coring. Fast
coring samples obtained by inner and efficient for deep
barrel retrieved by a wire-line coring on land and
through drilling rod. offshore.
Horizontal As wire-line coring. Coring Generally in competent
directional inclination can change to rock. Useful for under
drilling horizontal. Direction and water, mountain and
inclination is controlled. obstructions.

24

24
 Drilling Operations

Rotary Coring and Sampling Equipment

Drilling rotary rig: mostly do

vertical and sub-vertical drilling.
Diamond core bit: commonly N
(around 50 mm) and H (around
64 mm) sizes for site
investigation.
Core barrel and wireline:
removing rock cores.
© epiroc.com

25

25

Drilling Operations

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD)

Borehole drilling is
steered according to
predetermined
trajectory, inclination,
then curve and finally
horizontal.
Especially suitable for
investigation at seabed,
crossing river, or under
maintain.
26

26
 Drilling Operations

Rock Core Examination and Logging

Examination and logging of rock

cores to provide mineralogical
and geological information and
geomechanical parameters.
Cores are also used for
laboratory testing for mineral and
mechanics analysis, for
resources evaluation and
engineering design.

27

27

Drilling Machines and Operations

Development of Hybrid Drilling Machines

There are new technology development to improve

drilling rate and efficiency, by combined the existing
drilling features with other rock cutting methods.
Hybrid with water jet: high pressure water jet at
cutting head to assist rock cutting and remove
crushed debris.
Hybrid with microwave: microwave at cutting head
to weaken hard rock.

28

28
 Drilling Machines and Operations

Session Contents

• Drilling machines and drilling bits, selection of

machines and bits.
• Drill rate estimations and rock drillability
• Drilling operations, for blasting and exploration

29

29