DRILLING METHODS AND PRODUCTION Holes are drilled for various purposes, such as to receive charges of explo- sives, for exploration, or for ground modification by the injection of grout. Many factors affect the selection of equipment: Among these are 1. The purpose of the holes, such as blasting, exploration, or grout injection. 2. The nature of the terrain, Rough terrain may dictate track-mounted drills. ‘The required depth of holes. The hardness of the rock. ‘The extent to which the rock formation is broken or fractured, ‘The size of the project (total linear amount of drilling). The availability of water for drilling purposes, Lack of water favors dry drilling. 8, The size cores required for exploration. Small cores permit the use of diamond drills, whereas large cores suggest shot drills. rahe L A project utilizing experienced drillers will require drilling and blasting of high silica, fine-grained sandstone. From fleld driling tests, it was determined that 8 penetration rate of 120 fi/hr can be achieved with a y HD bit on a rotary-percus- sion drill operating at 100 psi, The drilis to be used take 10-ft steel. The blasting pattern will be a 10- x 10-ft grid with 2 ft of subdrilling required. On the average. the specified finish grade is 16 ft below the existing ground surface, Determine thé drilling production based on a 45-min hour.TABLE 12.10a Igneous rock: Average life fr dril bs end stee! in feet Igneous rock’ : lah High Mediu Low 2 silica silica slices silica : Dell bite ta<20 0 2 “production rate— penetration rate | good conditions Granite’: Dolomite’. | Granite. Dolomite } ftir)!" (funn) tun) (fume) 65 125 35 55 85 175 40 65 70 110 45 75 100 185 65 90 NA 100, NR 65 75 120 30 75 95 150 45 85 NR—Net recommended “Eximated production rates are for ideal conditions. but they do aecount forall delays including blasting. ay (2) Depth of hole: Penetration rate: @ 3) (4) (3) 6) a () Driling time: Change steel: Blow hole: Move to next hot Align steel: Change bits (9) Totaltime: cy any 2) Operating rate: Production efficiency: Hourly production: f face, (b) fi/min min (1b)/(2) fi/min min/he fhe aby9y FIGURE 12.16 Formet for estimating dtilling production. a) x0) fi ds, the hole. This extra drilling depth is dependent on the blasting design. Factors that impact blasthole drilling include hole diameter, hole spacing, pounds of explosive per cubic yard of rock, and firing sequence. Normally 2 or 3 ft of extra depth is required. For example, even though the depth to finish grade is 25 ft (Fig. 12.16, item Ja), it may be necessary to actually drill 28 ft (item Jb).Drilling Time Knowing the depth of hole and drilling rete allows the calculation of the time required for the drill to penetrate the rock (item 3 in Fig. 12.16). Fixed Time Fixed drilling time consists of changing steel (adding drill steel, and pullback and uncoupling of steel), blowing or cleaning the hole, moving the drill, and aligning the steel over the next hole (see Table 12.8) TABLE 12.8 Fixed driling times. Equipment and site condition Percussion Percussion drilling, Downhole drilling, Rotary. drilling, Operation drilling, clean uneven bench ‘even bench even bench bench (min) terrain (min) (min) (in) ‘Add one steel 04 oF 22 20 Pullone sloe! 06 06 25 28 Pulliast stee! = = 06 10 Move 14 2229 60 79 Align 20TABLE 12.40e Sedimentary rock: Average ite for dil bits and ste! in feet Sedimentary rok -; > Medium. : ‘illo Low.) > coarse silica r tain fine grain: ‘grain grain {sendstone) (dolomite) (shale) (conglomerate) (fy (he ef «) 1,200 1,800 2,000 1,800 850 900 7,500 1,200 7,500 1,800 3,000 2,500 2,000 2,200 3,600 3,000 3,100 3,500 4,500 4,000 3,500 2,000 5,000 4,800 7,000 NR 8,000 6,000 2,500 NR 15,000 13,000 4,000 4,000 18,000 14,000 2 6,000 8,000 20,000 15,000 cB 2,000 8,000 10,000 25,000 20,000 ne) 3,000 10,000 18,000 25,000 20,000 Downhole bits CI B 2,500 3,500 5,500 7,500 6,000 Drill steel ‘Shanks 5,000 5,500 6,000 7,000 6,500 Couplings 1,000. 1,200 3,800 2,000 4,750 Stel 10 2,000 2,300 2,500 4,000 3,500 Stool 12K 4,600 6,000 6,000 7,500 7,000 Bin, 20h £5,000 250,000 200,000 300,000 250,000 ‘B= button, CB = carbide button, HD = heavy duty, ST = stel tooth, STD = standard, NR = not recommended, g00d production. If the situation is sporadic drilling with qualified people, © 40-min or lower production hour might be more appropriate. The estimatat needs to consider the specific project requirements and the skill of the avail- able labor pool before deciding on the appropriate production efficiency. SSPEA project villzing experienced driers will require diiling and blasting of high silica, fine-grained sandstone. From field ciiling fests, it was determined that & penetration rate of 120 fr can be achieved with 8 3} HO bit on a rotey-percus sion drill operating at 100 psi. The drills to be used take 10-4 steel. The blasting pattern will be a 10- x 10-f grid with 2 ft of subdriling required. On the average: ‘he specitiz finish grade ig 16 t below the existing ground surface. Determine the tiling production based on a 45-min hour. Using the Fig. 12.16 format, (1) Depth of hole (a) 16 tt face {b) 18 ft dri (16 ft + 211) (2) Penetration: 2.00 ft/min (120 ft + 60 min) (8) Drilling time: 9.00 min (18 ft + 2 ftimin) (4) Change steel: 4.00 min (1 add & 1 remove at 0.5 ea.) (6) Blow hote: 0.18 min (about 0.1 min per 10 ft of hole) (6) Move 10 ft: 0.45 min (10 ft at 4 mph) (7) Align steel: 0.50 miri {not a high-mast drill) - 18 ft per hole ) (8) Change bit: 0.09 min = 4min x ( SGOT ie (Table 12.105) (9) Total time: 11.22 min (10) Operating rate: 1.60 ft/min (18 ft + 11.22 min) (11) Production efficiency: 50 min/hr (12) Hourly production: 72.0 tne {(45 min/nr) x (1.60 fmnin)}High-Wear Items From Table 12.10, the expected life of the high-wear items—the bit, shank, couplings, and steel (see Fig. 12.4)—of the drill can be found. A shank is the short piece of steel that is fixed to the drill chuck and transmits the drill’s impact energy to the drill stee!. Couplings are used to connect the sections of drill steel together. Assuming project conditions and driling equipment are as described in Example 12.1, what is the expected life, in number of holes that can be completed, for each of the high-wear driting items? For an average hole depth of 18 ft, the following number of holes can be com- pleted per each replacement, Number of 18-ft Average life holes in high-silica, High-wear (ft) (Table fine-grained a} item 12.100) sandstone ~ ee) 32 HD bit 850 B508= 47 CE shanks 5,000 5000/18 = 278 Ear couplings 4,000 1000/718= 66 steel 2,000 2,000/18 = 111Rock Production Drilling is only one part of the process of excavating rock, so when analyzing drilling production it is good to consider the cost and output in terms of cubic yards of rock excavated. With the 10 x 10 (ft) pattem and 18 ft of drilling used in Example 12.1, the rock yield is 59.3 cy. 1Of X 10 ft X 16 2effey Though the drilling depth was 18 ft, the excavation depth is only 16 ft. There- fore, each foot of drill hole produces 3.3 cy of bank measure (bey) rock. 593 cy ee 33 ey/ft If the hourly drilling production is 80.2 ft, then the rock production is 80.2 ft X 3.3 cy/ft equaling 265 cy, This should be matched to the blasting produc- tion and to the loading and hauling production, For example, if the loading and hauling capability is 500 cy/hr, it will be necessary to employ two drills. Tn caleulating cost, it is good practice to make the analysis in terms of both feet of hole drilled and cy of rock produced, Considering only the high-wear items of Examples 12.1 and 12.2, if bits cost $200 each, shanks $105, couplings $50, and a 10-ft steel $210, what is the cost per cy of rock produced? Bits $200 + 850 ft = $0.235/ft Shanks $105 + 5,000 ft = $0.021/ft Couplings (2 X $50) + 1,000 ft = $0.100/ft Steel (2X $210) + 2,000 ft = $0.210/ft $0.566/ft = 59.3 cy $0,566 perft = $0.172 ° a3 eyperh Ut Rercy