High-power laser rock cutting and drilling in mining operations: initial feasibility tests

Hallada, Marc R.; Walter, Robert F.; Seiffert, Stephan L.

doi:10.1117/12.414007

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The use of infrared lasers for directed energy penetration of rocks has been researched for many decades without practical realization [7][8][9][10]. A fundamental limitation to the use of infrared wavelengths for rock drilling is the inability to effectively couple power to a surface while simultaneously extracting an outward flow of small particles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Millimeter-Wave Heating, Radiometry, and Calorimetry of Granite Rock to Vaporization

Woskov

Michael

2011

J Infrared Milli Terahz Waves

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Millimeter-wave (MMW) technologies can provide unique heating and diagnostic capabilities to research the thermal dynamics of materials to extreme temperatures. The MMW properties of rocks in the molten state up to their vaporization temperatures are not well known. Using a 28 GHz gyrotron beam collinear with a 130 GHz radiometry view in a calorimetric chamber, the transitions of granite rock specimens through solid phases, melting, and vaporization were observed, including release of trapped trace gas (< 0.07%). The 28 GHz emissivity of molten granite was observed to be approximately constant at 0.66 ± 0.03 up to vaporization where it increased to 0.70 ± 0.03 at an equilibrated temperature of 2710 ± 120 °C. An analysis of the thermal power balance during a 76 s steady state vaporization time period indicates that the MMW emissivity of the molten granite is larger than in the infrared. The observations support the possibility that MMW thermal ablative penetration into hot crystalline rock formations could be a more practical approach than infrared laser drilling to access deep resources.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%