Chapter 22

Rock Drillability

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DRILLABILITY AND AFFECTING PARAMETERS

The rock drillability or speed of drilling for a blasthole and rock bolting needs to be
estimated to assess the cycle time of tunneling for a given setup of tunneling machines.
Construction time for back grouting and consolidation grouting also depends on the same.
Rock drillability is defined as the ease of drilling a hole in the rock mass. Studies have
shown that the drillability of rock and the penetration rate of a drill are affected by
1. Rock hardness
2. Rock texture and density
3. Rock fracture pattern
4. General structure of the formation/rock mass
These parameters do not account for the drilling equipment characteristics. Each of the
listed properties affecting drillability is considered separately. An experienced driller
can tell how a rock will drill. The important thing to know is how fast it will drill.
Considering these four properties, rock drillability may be classified into five conditions:
fast, fast average, average, slow average, and slow. Various properties can be determined
as follows.

Hardness
Hardness of a mineral may be obtained by the Mohs scale of hardness shown in Table 22.1.
The number for each mineral in Table 22.1 indicates its hardness. A higher number means
the mineral is harder than the next lower number. Minerals with a higher number can
scratch the ones with the same or a lower number. Rocks may contain more than one min-
eral, so tests should be made at several places on a piece of rock to determine the average
hardness. Mohs’ hardness kit for testing minerals can also be used in the field.

Texture
Texture may be determined by visual inspection of the grain structure of the rock and
then classified for the drilling condition as shown in Table 22.2 (Wilbur, 1982).

Engineering Rock Mass Classification

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288 Engineering Rock Mass Classification

TABLE 22.1 Mohs’ Hardness Scale

1 Talc
2 Gypsum
3 Calcite
4 Fluorite
5 Apatite
6 Feldspar
7 Quartz
8 Topaz
9 Corundum
10 Diamond

Source: Nast, 1955.

TABLE 22.2 Texture

Drilling condition Type of rock and texture

Fast Porous (cellular or filled with cavities)
Fast average Fragmental (fragments, loose or semi-consolidated)

Average Granitoid (grains large enough to be readily recognized — average

grained granite)
Slow average Porphyritic (large crystals in fine-grained granite)

Slow Dense (grain structure too small to identify with the naked eye)

Source: Wilbur, 1982.

Fracture
Fracture in drillability refers to how a rock breaks apart when struck by a blow with a
hammer. Five drilling conditions are correlated with type of rock and its fracture pattern
in Table 22.3.

Formation
Formation describes the condition of rock mass structure. Various formations facilitating
the five drilling conditions are shown in Table 22.4. A high drilling rate is possible in
massive rocks, whereas slow drilling is obtained in blocky and seamy rock masses.
The rock chart in Figure 22.1 shows drilling characteristics for the five drilling con-
ditions (Nast, 1955).

CLASSIFICATION FOR DRILLING CONDITION

When the characteristics of a rock fall into different conditions, which is usually the case,
it is necessary to compute final drilling conditions. This may be done by using the point
system chart shown in Table 22.5. The chart may be used as explained in the next
paragraph.
Chapter 22 Rock Drillability 289

TABLE 22.3 Fracture

Drilling
condition Type of rock and fracture pattern
Fast Crumbly (crumbles into small pieces when struck lightly)
Fast average Brittle (rock breaks with ease when struck lightly)
Average Sectile (when slices can be shaved or split off and rock crumbles when
hammered)
Slow average Tough (rock resists breaking when struck with heavy blow)
Slow Malleable (rock that tends to flatten under blow of hammer)

Source: Wilbur, 1982.

TABLE 22.4 Formation

Drilling
condition Type of rock with respect to formation
Fast Massive (solid or dense with practically no seams)

Fast average Sheets (layers or beds 4–8 feet (1.2–2.4 m) thick with thin horizontal seams)
Average Laminated (thin layers 1–3 feet (0.3–0.9 m) thick with horizontal seams
with little or no earth)
Slow average Seamy (many open seams in horizontal and vertical positions)
Slow Blocky (wide open seams in all directions and filled with earth or shattered
or fissured)

Source: Wilbur, 1982.

To obtain the drillability of a particular rock mass, the points for each characteristic
are added together (Table 22.5). In extreme cases of drilling conditions, judgment should
be made cautiously. If three characteristics are fast and one (e.g., formation) is slow, the
three fast ones would be revised to average, or to a total of 10 (3 þ 3 þ 3 þ 1) points,
correcting a fast condition to an average condition. On the other hand, if three charac-
teristics are slow and one (e.g., formation) is fast, the fast one would be revised to an
average, or the three slow ones would be revised to a slow average.
Drillability, in other words, may be measured by the drilling speed (centimeter per
minute) at which a drill bit penetrates the rock mass. A drillability factor has been
determined for all drilling conditions from a performance study of rock drilling jobs both
in the field and in the laboratory (Table 22.6). The drillability factor of each condition has
subsequently been correlated with drilling speed (Table 22.6); therefore, Table 22.6 can
be used to figure out the drilling speed once the drilling condition is known.
290 Engineering Rock Mass Classification

FIGURE 22.1 Rock drilling characteristics. (From Nast, 1955)

TABLE 22.5 Drilling Condition Point System Chart

Nature of rock Fast Fast average Average Slow average Slow

Hardness 8 4 3 2 1
Texture 8 4 3 2 1
Fracture 8 4 3 2 1
Formation 8 4 3 2 1
Total 32 16 12 8 4

Source: Nast, 1955.

Chapter 22 Rock Drillability 291

TABLE 22.6 Drillability versus Drilling Speed

Drilling condition Fast Fast average Average Slow average Slow

Drillability factor 2.67 1.33 1.0 0.67 0.33
Drilling speed 50 25 18 12 6
(centimeter/minute)

Source: Nast, 1955.

OTHER APPROACHES
Scleroscope hardness reading (SHR), as used by the Joy Manufacturing Company in its
laboratory, gives more definitive results in determining drillability of rocks (Bateman,
1967). In this method, a small diamond pointer hammer is dropped from a height of
25 cm through a thin glass tube to strike rock samples and the height of rebound is
measured. The harder the sample, the higher the rebound of the diamond pointer
hammer. The typical observations of rebound height for several rock types are shown
in Table 22.7. Soft rocks are crushed to powder by the hammer, while hard rocks
are partly shattered, with most of the energy returned in the rebound. This action is
analogous to the percussion drill and provides useful information on the drillability of
rock masses.

TABLE 22.7 Typical Values of Diamond Pointer Rebound

for Several Rock Types
Minerals Igneous rocks
Gypsum 12 Basalt 90
Calcite 45 Diorite 90
Feldspar 90 Rhyolite 100
Quartz 115 Granite 100–110
Sedimentary rocks Metamorphic rocks
Shale 30–50 Marble 40–50
Limestone 40–60 Slate 50–60

Sandstone 50–60 Schist 60–65

Taconite 90–115 Quartzite 100–115

Source: Bateman, 1967.

292 Engineering Rock Mass Classification

REFERENCES
Bateman, W. M. (1967). Rock analysis. Joy/Air Power, Joy Manufacturing Company, March–April.
In J. O. Bickel & T. R. Kuesel (Eds.), Tunnel engineering handbook (1982, Chap. 7).
Bickel, J. O., & Kuesel, T. R. (1982). Tunnel engineering handbook (p. 670). New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold.
Nast, P. H. (1955). Drillers handbook on rock. O’Davey Compressor Company, Kent, Ohio. In J. O. Bickel
& T. R. Kuesel (Eds.), Tunnel engineering handbook (1982, Chap. 7).
Wilbur, L. D. (1982). Rock tunnels. In J. O. Bickel & T. R. Kuesel (Eds.), Tunnel engineering handbook
(Chap. 7, pp. 123–207).