Use of surfactants to improve the quality of rock crushing

Abstract

The prospects of using surfactants (surfactants) to improve the quality of crushing rocks by explosion are considered. On the basis of a deep analogy of impact and explosive destruction of rocks the procedure for determining the characteristics of the rock particle size distribution, specific energy intensity of destruction and normalized crushing pulse, which is a material constant, is worked out. Experimental determination of this constant allows us to estimate optimal parameters of drilling and blasting operations when rock properties change under the influence of surfactant. It is established that saturation of limestone with optimally selected surfactant (0,1 % solution of MgCl2) allows to reduce the specific consumption of explosives by 15 % and the penetration distance by 7 % at maintenance of the given quality of crushing of rocks.