Fractal Characteristics of Sandstone Cutting Fracture under Mechanical Shock Loading Conditions
It is the key to guide rock-breaking design and engineering practice for how to obtain a reasonable test indicator to assess the cuttability of the rock. Some sandstone samples were tested by using the linear rock cutting machine in the school of mining engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. The curves characteristics for the weight percent of the broken debris with the mesh size distribution were obtained through the screening statistics. Furthermore, the fractal dimension of the specimen broken debris was derived through theoretical calculations and statistical analysis. The results showed that the rock cutting fragmentation is of significant fractal features under the mechanical shock loads. The broken debris fractal dimension of the structural integrity specimens is bigger, the range of the fractal dimension is smaller and the broken debris size distribution is more even than that of the poor structural integrity specimens. The fractal dimension is the ideal test indicator to assess and analysis the rock-breaking degree.