Use of practical measurement techniques in the assessment of rock fragmentation experiments

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5204597

Parrish, R L

Rock fragmentation to form a suitable rubble bed for in situ oil shale retorting involves blasting the shale into or toward the confined volumes of previously created voids. With the high cost of site preparation (e.g., mining of access drifts and experiment rooms) for field experiments in oil shale, each test should be optimized. Appropriate measurements to improve the understanding of what occurred and why it is vital to both the assessment of the experiments and the development of numerical rock fragmentation models. Instrumentation techniques developed at Sandia National Laboratories have provided practical measurements of rock response during explosive fragmentation. Detonation-induced stress waves have been measured with stress gages and accelerometers. Measurements of rock motion over an extended time have been made with accelerometers mounted in ''cages'' of ground-matching grout, borehole extensometers, and photometrics. A special downhole data acquisition/recording system recently developed permits rock motion measurements at increased depths. These measurements have been extremely valuable both for assessment of the individual experiments and for correlation with model simulations of the blasts. 14 refs., 17 figs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5204597
• Report Number(s): SAND-85-1918C; CONF-8511106-1; ON: DE86000431
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040300* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Drilling
Fracturing & Mining
58 GEOSCIENCES
580300 -- Mineralogy
Petrology
& Rock Mechanics-- (-1989)
ACCELEROMETERS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
BOREHOLES
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CAVITIES
COMMINUTION
CORRELATIONS
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
DETONATIONS
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPLOSIVE FRACTURING
EXTENSOMETERS
FOSSIL FUELS
FRACTURING
FRAGMENTATION
FUELS
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MEASURING METHODS
MOTION
OIL SHALES
RECORDING SYSTEMS
ROCKS
STRESSES
WAVE PROPAGATION