Percussion drilling 

is employed when auger or wash boring is not possible in very stiff soil or
rock. It also can be used in most soil types. Here the advancement of a hole is achieved by
alternatively lifting and dropping a heavy cutting or hammering bit that is attached to a rope or
cable that is lowered into an open hole or inside a temporary casing (casings are hollow
cylindrical pipes used for borehole stability and to prevent the loss of drilling fluid through the
boreholes). Usually, a tripod is used to support the cable. The stroke of bit varies according to the
ground condition. The major disadvantage of this method is that it is not possible to get good-
quality undisturbed samples. In very hard rock (and especially fractured hard rock), down-the-
hole (DTH) drilling can be employed. In this case, the hammer, applying repeated percussive
pressure, is located just behind the drill bit inside the hole, unlike the open percussion drilling,
where the hammer is on top of the drilling string. The drilling string provides the necessary force
and rotation to the hammer and bit, as well as compressed air or fluids to the hammer and for the
flushing of cuttings. This arrangement also allows for much deeper percussion drilling. However,
the DTH drills are typically more expensive.
Drill bit:
Drill bits, as mentioned previously, are the tools for cutting soils/rocks. These drill bits come in
many different sizes and shapes (e.g. spoon bit, spiral pointed, cone type, diamond coated,
forstner bit, etc.) as shown in Fig. 9.7.

Fig. 9.7.  Different types of drilling bits.

Drilling fluid:
Different types are drilling fluids (e.g. air, air/water, water-based mud, oil-based mud, and
synthetic-based fluids) are used during the drilling of boreholes into soil or rocks. The purpose of
drilling fluid is as follows:
(i) Providing hydrostatic pressure to prevent the inflow of groundwater inside the
borehole.
(ii) Cooling and lubricating the drilling bit.
(iii) Cleaning of boreholes.
 (iv) Removing the rock cores and fragments excavated by the drilling bit and carrying
them to the surface.
(iv) Transmitting the hydraulic energy to the measurement and logging tools and bit.
(v) Stabilizing the boreholes (casing is not required if an appropriate drilling fluid is
used).

Percussion or cable drilling

Percussion drilling is the manual drilling technique that was used in the first well drilled in North
America. In this drilling technique, a hammering bit is attached to a long cable that is then
lowered into a wide-open hole. As such, it is also called cable drilling, wherein the driller uses a
tripod to support the tools. By going back and forth with the bit, the action loosens the soil in the
borehole, which is then extracted with the help of a bailer. At intervals, the bit is removed while
the cuttings are suspended in water, which is then removed by pumping to the surface. The
percussion or churn drill digs a vertical hole. It employs the principle of freely falling chisel bit
hung on a cable to which percussive motion is imparted by one of the various types of power
units. The power units are manual lift and drop, compressed air, and electrically driven winches.
The tungsten carbide bit fitted in a hammer is lifted few meters and allowed to drop (Fig. 2.6) to
hit the bottom of the hole. The process continues in succession. The churning motion of the bit
crushes and scraps the ground, and so a hole is dug. The cutting of rocks thus produces mud or
slurry by lowering water. The crushed material is removed from the bottom of the hole at a
regular interval to make a sample. Churn drilling is suitable for soft and medium formation. In
harder formation resharpening of cutting bit is required frequently resulting in lowering of
progress. The capacity of the churn drill in its original form is limited to relatively short holes,
under 40 m. Unless the formation is consolidated, a steel casing is necessary to prevent the
collapse of the hole. Similarly, the casing may have to be cemented/isolated in order to protect
the hole from contamination or prevent the hole from being a vehicle to bring various layers in
communication (triggering environmental concerns). Only an uncemented casing can be used
temporarily after permanent screen or casing is installed.
 Figure  2.6. Schematic conceptual diagram of the percussion drilling procedure.

From Halder, 2013.

The percussion drilling itself is classified as top-hammer drilling (THD), down-the-hole (DTH)
drilling, and rotary drilling (RD) rigs, depending on the operating method used (Song et al.,
2016). Fig. 2.7 shows various methods. In general, THD is used mostly for mining and civil
blasting works, for which the drilled hole is restricted to a length of 40 m at the most. DTH is
used mainly for groundwater development and can create holes to a maximum depth of 4000  m.
Although this depth is greater than many oil and gas wells, DTH is not applied to petroleum
wells. Rotary drilling (RD) is most commonly used for petroleum production and geothermal
development. In this technique, the drill bit is propelled by its own weight to reach depths of up
to 10,000  m formations resulting in low progress at high labor cost. The capacity of the churn
drill is limited to relatively short holes of 10–50 m.
 Figure  2.7. Drilling mechanisms of two types (A and B) of percussive drilling system

as compared to rotary drilling (C).

The principal mechanism involved in the percussive drilling mechanism is the generation of
percussive energy with the repeated impact of the drifter (THD rigs) or the DTH hammer (DTH
rigs). This energy is coupled with the feed force and rotation force that are transmitted to the drill
bit through the drill rod. The energy generated from the repeated impacts is then converted into
wave energy, which is transmitted to the rock via the drill bit. Finally, the drill bit, now with
enough impact energy for drilling, cuts into and crushes the rock.
The rate at which the impact-generated energy in a percussive drilling system is transmitted is
determined by complex effects such as drilling rod, coupling sleeve, the compressive strength of
the rock, and interactions between the drill bit and the rock. The process has been studied for a
simplified system. For instance, Li et al. (2000) used stress wave theory along with energy
conservation law to analyze both DHT and DTH impacts and then related them to impact
resistance index and rock hardness. With that analysis, it is found that certain drilling methods
are highly efficient, with high rates of penetration, when drilling soft rock (uniaxial compressive
strength, UCS, < 20 MPa) or medium hard rock (UCS 50–120 MPa), but the efficiency decreases
when drilling very hard rock (UCS > 200 MPa).
There are numerous previous studies regarding drill bit, rock drilling, the transmission of impact
energy, and drilling efficiency. Hustrulid and Fairhurst (1971a,b; 1972a,b)Hustrulid and
Fairhurst (1971a)Hustrulid and Fairhurst (1971b)Hustrulid and Fairhurst (1972a)Hustrulid and
Fairhurst (1972b) investigated energy transmission between the drill steel and rock and measured
the specific energy resulting from the impact force. All design works follow modeling of a
simplified model of the actual drilling process. The primary mechanism is the creation of crack
within the rock body. The crack is initiated by the tensile stress associated with the expansion of
the crushed zone during the loading process. In the crushed zone, the mechanism of side crack is
mixed tensile and shear failure, but outside the crushed zone, the dominant mechanism of side
crack is tensile failure. A comprehensive model is absent for this analysis but numerous
semiempirical and semitheoretical relationships among the side crack length, the drilled rock
property, and the drilling force are formulated to approximately predict the side crack length. In
the simultaneous loading, the interaction and coalescence of side cracks induced by the
neighboring button-bits with an optimum line spacing enable formation of largest rock chips,
control of the direction of subsurface cracks, and a minimum total specific energy consumption.
Based on this depiction, a formula was derived by Liu et al. (2008) to determine the optimum
line spacing on the basis of the drilled rock properties, the diameter and shape of the button-bit,
and the drilling conditions. In the rock fragmentation by multiple button-bits, most of the rock
between the neighboring button-bits is chipped as a result of the coalescence of side cracks. In
the remaining rock, the intensely crushed zones and significant extensional cracks are observed
adjacent to the sidewall and the inside of the borehole. Fragment side distribution shows more
than 80% of the fragments are fines in the crushed zones as well as the cracked zones, large
fragments are indeed observed, which are the big chips caused by the coalescence of side cracks.
Although not commonly well known, percussive drilling opens up opportunities for sustainable
drilling practices. Consider some of US patents issued on the topic. Mishkin et al.
(1973) invented a percussive drilling machine in which an air-operated striking rearhead
connected to a hammer piston was used. The hammer piston reciprocates under the action of
compressed air so as to deliver blows at a drill steel located at the front end of the machine. At
the same time, a reversible rotary impulse fronthead has a body accommodating two rotatable
and axially movable annular pistons provided with impact projections and indentations formed
between the projections. While the original patent had an embedded high-frequency
reciprocatory angular oscillations system, today, we have the technology for remote sensing that
can make this process dynamic. Depending on the nature of the rock and in anticipation of the
rock that lies ahead, a system can be optimized. Similarly, the rotary impulse fronthead that has a
ratchet mechanism, which ensures the rotation of one of the annular pistons and the drill steel
only in one direction, can be optimized dynamically depending on the drilled rock information.
One significant advancement of this technology was in its application in directional drilling
(Johns et al., 1993). In this invention, an air-operated hammer drill is used to onset and follow-up
directional drilling. Similar to the 1973 invention, this one has a piston that reciprocates while
simultaneously rotating within its housing. A hammer drill bit slidably keyed to the bottom of the
piston transfers the impact energy to the formation and rotates during operation independent of
an attached drillstring, making it ideally suited to directional drilling activities. Because the
hammer impacts while simultaneously rotating the bit, maximum penetration of the bit is
assured. Although in percussive drilling system, drill bit rotational parameters, e.g., torque and
rpm, are not relevant from a rock formation breaking point of view, they become relevant in a
directional drilling case. Typically, industry experience has proven that the bit optimum
rotational speed is approximately 20 rpm for an impact frequency of 1600 bpm (beats per
minute). This rotational speed translates to an angular displacement of approximately 4–5
degrees per impact of the bit against the rock formation. Another way to express this rotation is
the cutters positioned on the outer row of the hammer bit move at the approximate rate of one
half the cutter diameter per stroke of the hammer.
Other patents in percussive drilling involve various forms of incremental improvement of the
original concept. For instance, Guimaraes and Cruz (2009) invented a drill bit that has a central
longitudinal axis and is operable by applying repetitive axial percussive impacts on the drill bit
in a direction having a component along the axis and by applying rotary motion about the axis
relative to the earth formation. The principal mechanism involves introducing one or more axial
cutters for predominantly axially cutting the formation triggered by the axial percussive impacts
and one or more shear cutters for predominantly shear cutting the subterranean earth formation in
response to the rotary motion. Table 2.3 shows a list of patents with their relevant information.
The main principle of all these patents is the improvement of the transfer of energy from
percussive to shear form. Fig. 2.8 shows the general trend of percussive force on the
displacement of the bit. The chaotic nature of the graphs is indicative of the fact that the
relationship is not linear and there are numerous other factors that play a role.

Figure  2.8. The impact of force on bit displacement under different rock conditions.
From Liu, H.Y., Kou, S.Q., Lindqvist, P.A., January 2008. Numerical studies on bit-rock

fragmentation mechanisms. International Journal of Geomechanics 8 (1).