Evaluation of Energy Characteristics of High Voltage Equipment for Electro-Blasting Destruction of Rocks and Concrete

Abstract

The splitting off concrete monolith via electro-blast technology is described. High- voltage investigations were performed using the electric-discharge blasting unit with charging voltage up to 15 kV and maximum energy of 126 kJ. Several series of experiments of multiborehole electro-blast with initiation of plasma channel by wire explosion have been carried out. The combined effect of pulse electric discharge and gas generating composition allows to increase the energy of electro-blasting. According to data obtained from experiments the average value of energy for concrete monolith splitting off of 1 m³ is about 1554 kJ. The energy of electrical discharge pulse is about 95 kJ and gas-generating composition has energy contribution of 3.8 kJ/g. For carrying out of one electric-discharge blasting experiment 6-8 minutes has been spent. Therefore, the efficiency of pulse power system is about (0.85-0.9) m³/h.