Evaluation of saturation effects on drag pick cutting of a brittle sandstone from full scale linear cutting tests

A permeable quartzose sandstone was subjected to full-scale cutting tests under a chisel-type drag pick, in both dry and fully saturated conditions. Contrary to the results observed from disc cutting tests in the same setup with the same rock (Abu Bakar and Gertsch, 2011), saturation actually increased the cutting (drag) and normal (vertical) forces by 9.9% and 9.4%, respectively. The specific energy of cutting also was greater in the saturated samples, by 28%. More expectedly, the relation of fracture surface area to specific energy was confirmed through several descriptors of chip size distribution, including the Rosin–Rammler x′ parameter, and the empirical coarseness index. An inverse power relation between coarseness index and specific energy was also confirmed.

► Used linear rock cutting machine with radial picks on dry and saturated sandstone. ► Cutting forces and specific energy were found to be higher in saturated mode. ► Computed chip size descriptors: Rosin–Rammler x’, coarseness index, production rate. ► Chip size descriptors were found to be correlated with specific energy.