Numerical and experimental study on rock drilling of abrasive waterjet

Abstract

Recently, construction in urban areas has caused civil complaints due to noise and vibration, and thus construction should be stopped. Meanwhile, abrasive waterjet has the advantage of reducing civil complaints caused by urban construction through a low noise and low vibration method. Abrasive waterjet is a technology that removes materials through mixing with abrasives using high-pressure water. It has been used in the fields of cleaning and milling and recently has been applied to civil engineering. The drilling performance of the abrasive waterjet is determined by various parameters, and optimum parameter conditions are required for field applicability and economy. In this thesis, it was confirmed that less abrasive input and effective drilling at the standoff distance were possible by experimentally performing the optimal parameter conditions for efficient rock drilling using an abrasive waterjet. In order to understand variables that are difficult to measure directly through experiments, the velocity and mixing efficiency of water and abrasives were identified in various parameters through numerical analysis. Based on this, efficient rock drilling in the field using an abrasive waterjet was explained through an example. The results of this study will contribute to the application of drilling technology using abrasive waterjet to the civil engineering field through the selection of the optimal parameter conditions for rock drilling.