Finite Element Method Application to Determine Appropriate Splitting Parameters for Dimensional Stone Quarries

Abstract

In dimension stone extraction, there have existed many block cutting techniques from intact rock or from a large block to smaller blocks such as disc sawing, chainsawing, diamond wire sawing and splitting techniques, one of which still has recently been used with the other modern methods is splitting techniques. The usage of the splitting methods has still based on the practical experience of mining workers on calculating the spacing of two holes in the co-planar line, resulting in increasing the roughness of the cutting face. The paper studies a relationship between beating force and two-hole spacing based on rock mass properties of dimension stone in order to find proper splitting parameters. The paper deploys the Finite Element Method (FEM) with computer simulation in 2D using Phase2 software. From input data including rock mechanics (unit density, Young’s modulus, Poisson’s rate), compressive pressure on the hole wall due to the force, the spacing, the simulation represents stress and displacement distributions along the two adjacent holes. A regression function for a relationship between the pressure and the spacing is established with the results of stress distribution along the two adjacent holes, compared to uniaxial tensile strength through running the software, which leads to making suggestions to appropriate splitting parameters.