Determination of rock-breaking performance of high-pressure supercritical carbon dioxide jet

In this study, a well-designed experimental setup is used to determine the rock-breaking performance of a high-pressure supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) jet. Its rock-breaking performance is first compared with that of a high-pressure water jet under the same operation conditions. The effects of five major factors that affect the rock-breaking performance of the high-pressure SC-CO2 jet, i.e., the nozzle diameter, the standoff distance, the jet pressure, the rock compressive strength and the jet temperature are experimentally determined. The experimental results indicate that the rock-breaking performance of the SC-CO2 jet is significantly improved over the high-pressure water jet. It is also found that the rock-breaking performance of the SC-CO2 jet is improved with the increase of the nozzle diameter or the standoff distance, until the nozzle diameter or the standoff distance reaches a certain critical value and after that it begins to deteriorate. The rock-breaking performance of the SC-CO2 jet improves monotonically with the increase of the jet pressure, while it shows a monotonic deterioration with the increase of the rock compressive strength. In addition, it is found that, under the same working conditions, the SC-CO2 jet can always provide a better rock-breaking performance than the subcritical liquid CO2 jet.