Experimental study on rock-breaking mechanism of micro-coring PDC bit
AbstractIn this paper, in order to study the rock-breaking mechanism of the micro-coring PDC bit, a series of unit breaking experiments containing 2 breaking forms (static-pressure breaking and fracture breaking) are conducted on core columns of sandstone, limestone, and granite. Besides, a full-sized micro-coring PDC bit with a diameter of 152.4 mm is designed and manufactured and is used to conduct an indoor experiment on multiple sized sandstone core columns. The unit breaking experiment results show that ROP (rate of penetration) of the fracture breaking is higher than the static-pressure breaking. The indoor experiment results of the full-sized bit show that ROP of the micro-coring PDC bit is 49–112% higher than the conventional bit and that the diameter of core column shows greater influence on ROP, while the height of the column shows smaller. Moreover, the micro-coring PDC bit realizes volumetric fracture on all of the three types of rock samples. Since volumetric fracture produces large rock debris, the rock-breaking efficiency and ROP of the micro-coring PDC bit will be improved significantly.