Study of High Powered Plasma for In Situ Hard Rock Disintegration

Abstract

The report describes an investigation of hard rock cutting using a transferred arc plasma for melting narrow, deep cuts in hard rock at high speed and removing the intervening rock by thermal fracturing. The one year experimental program resulted in the development of a cutting system capable of operating horizontally and vertically at 250-500 kW, producing continuous cuts in granite and basalt at 2-1/2 to 12 inches per minute depending on cut depth which ranged from one to nineteen inches. Thermal melting efficiencies were in the range of 20-30 percent.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 21, 1973
Accession Number
AD0772506

Entities

People

  • John W. Poole
  • Merle L. Thorpe

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Dielectrics
  • Electric Arcs
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Electron Tubes
  • Energy
  • Energy Transfer
  • Equations
  • Flow Rate
  • Frequency
  • Gas Flow
  • Geometry
  • Heat Flux
  • Heat Transfer
  • Lasers
  • Power Supplies
  • Steady State
  • Thermal Conductivity

Readers

  • Explosive Engineering.
  • Manufacturing Engineering.
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.