Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Breaking rock without explosives

yobbo II - 13-4-2017 at 12:49


There are a number of products on the market for breaking up rock and concrete without explosives.

http://www.ecobust.com/

http://www.crackamite.com/


also dynochem, dexchem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-explosive_demolition_agent...

Has anyone any idea what these products contain or can some cheap substitute be had?

A Halogenated Substance - 13-4-2017 at 13:38

Just some quick searching around:

"Crackamite is a non-toxic powder consisting of oxides of calcium, silicon and aluminum. The chemical composition of Crackamite is a powder consisting of an inorganic compound made mainly of a special kind of silicate and an organic compound. Crackamite does not contain any harmful components."

MSDS: http://www.crackamite.com/msds

WGTR - 13-4-2017 at 14:13

Very expansive clay. Add water and it expands, dry it out and it shrinks...just like some natural soils in South Texas.

Bentonite is a pretty expansive clay. Try heating some to drive out moisture, pack it tightly into a hole, and then add water.

[Edited on 4-13-2017 by WGTR]

condennnsa - 13-4-2017 at 15:01

was wondering about this myself ... http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=18637#...

yobbo II - 13-4-2017 at 15:49


Thanks for replys.
Going to the patents there are lots of formula.
Searching for rock breaking + cao takes up for example:

CONSTITUTION: This static breaking material is an expanding substance formed by heat-treating a mixture of a CaO raw material and a CaF2 raw material, comprises a mineral composed of CaO and CaF2 as effective ingredients and has 15-20 pts.wt. of CaF2 based on 100 pts.wt. total amount of CaO and CaF2. Or this static breaking material comprises the expanding substance and a hydraulic substance and/or a latent hydraulic substance, a setting modifier and a water reducing agent. By using the static breaking material high-performance breaking ability and effects such as breaking a rock or concrete even at a low temperature in about half a day are obtained.

It CaF cheap and non toxic? I would imagine not.

Another one:

PURPOSE: To provide the title breaking agent capable of breaking a bulky material in a short time at high breaking efficiency safely by using a specific quicklime in the title breaking agent contg. a given amt. of quicklime.
CONSTITUTION: In the title breaking agent contg. at least 50wt.% quicklime, use is made of CO2-treated quicklime prepd. by bringing a starting quicklime powder into contact with CO2.

Searching rock breaking + quicklime gives (amongst others)
Abstract:
PURPOSE: To provide the subject breaking agent capable of breaking rock or concrete in a short time without causing a stream-generating phenomenon by compression-solidifying the powder of a hydratively swellable material consisting mainly of burnt lime, crushing the solid product and subsequently packaging the crushed product with a water-permeable material in a bar-like shape.




CONSTITUTION: The powder of a hydratively swellable material consisting mainly of burnt lime, preferably consisting of 10-20wt.% of alumina cement, 2-6wt.% of Ca(OH)2 and the remaining amount of CaO, is once compression- solidified, crushed and subsequently packaged with a water-permeable material such as nylon or PP nonwoven fabric in a bar-like shape to provide the objective breaking agent.


and more:

CONSTITUTION: The breaking agent for brittle substance (e.g. rock or concrete) is prepared by adding 0.1W5pts.wt. fluidizing agent (e.g. formalin condensate of naphthalenesulfonic acid) and 0.05W5pts.wt. carbonate (g. sodium carbonate) to 100pts.wt. quick lime. For improved performance, about 0.1W5pts.wt. water is added for partial slaking of the lime. For application, 20W50pts.wt. water is added to 100pts.wt. breaking agent to prepare an aqueous slurry, which is poured into a hole made in a brittle substance to cause breaking of the substance by expansive force of the slurry.


Searching non explosive rock breaking takes up (amongst others)
A rock and concrete breaking (fracturing-demolishing-splitting) system comprising: a chemical mixture comprising potassium chlorate with ratio of 55-70% by weight of mixture; ammonium oxalate with ratio of 15-30% by weight of mixture; sugar or lactose or starch or any combination of them with ratio of 15-20% by weight of mixture; boron oxide (boroxide) (B2O3) with ratio of 5-10% by weight of mixture; borax decahydrate (Na2B4O7.10H2O) with ratio of 3-5% by weight of mixture; an activation component placed inside and/or in contact directly or indirectly with the chemical mixture, wherein the activation component is configured to activate the chemical mixture to burn and expand; and an activation system configured to activate the activation component wherein when the activation system activates the activation component, the activation component activates the chemical mixture that causes chemical mixture to burn and expand.

searching silent not explosive rock breaking takes up (amongst others)

Abstract:
A high speed silent cracking agent of the liquid-soaked type consists of a cartridge of solid cracking agent and a solution of liquid inhibitor catalyst. The cartridge of solid cracking agent contains about 50 to about 90 percent by weight of quicklime, about 1 to about 4 percent by weight of borax, about 8 to about 30 percent by weight of vermiculite, 0 to 2 percent by weight of aluminum powder, and 0 to about 14 percent by weight of sulphur based on the total weight of said solid cracking agent. The solution of liquid inhibitor catalyst contains about 0.05 to about 0.40 percent by weight of caustic soda, about 0.01 to about 0.50 percent by weight of quartz, about 0.04 to about 0.30 percent by weight of ammoniation agent and about 99.8 to about 98.8 percent by weight of water, or contains about 0.40 to about 1.80 percent by weight sodium silicate, about 0.05 to about 0.40 percent by weight of ammoniation agent and about 99.55 to about 97.8 percent by weight of water based on the total weight of said solution. The expansion pressure of the silent cracking agent is about 70 to about 130 MPa and the cracking time is about 3 to 60 minutes. It can be widely used in the fields of rock quarrying and processing, highway constructing, concrete foundation demolishing, smooth blasting in tunnels and shafts, and coal mining.


At this stage I must appologise for all the posting.
I GOT CARRIED AWAY!

Yob


Fulmen - 14-4-2017 at 00:40

I actually worked with a guy that formulated such a product. I could never get the recipe from him though.

I suspect it was based on regular, quick-setting portland cement with ~10% CaO added. Calcium oxide causes the cement to expand as it sets, testing expansion was part of the standard testing done on every batch of cement we produced. And it correlated well with free CaO-values.

tsathoggua1 - 16-4-2017 at 10:28

An old, old method of mining, was to soak the area to be quarried in water (this was large scale, stone age tech or early metal age) and then light a dirty great fire at the bottom of whatever cliff the miners were at, the steam formed fracturing the rock.

Dr.Bob - 18-4-2017 at 17:41

If you drill a line of holes along a straight line near a cliff, you can fill them with expanding cement, water and then freeze, or metal wedges to break off a chuck of rock. That is how some stone is quarried in big pieces, especially if it is not stable to the shock of explosives.

For mining gravel, drilling a hole and filling it with explosives is much cheaper and more fun.

yobbo II - 19-4-2017 at 14:19


I have actually used the fire method to remove a small outcrop of very hard rock that was sticking out in the way. It was very hard and a crow bar was having no effect on it (at least a crow bar with the rock on one end and me on the other end!)
I cut the stone with an angle grinder (con saw, or friction cutter) where it was joined to the mother rock and then lit a very hot fire with coal and wood and a gas burner.
Pored some water on it when it was still hot (can be dangerous as stone chips can fly). A good layer came off the stone (with crow bar) and the process was repeated to get some more away. Worked good.
It would make you appreciate what it must have been like trying to quarry stones when all you had was a deers antler, before the time of metals.

I am moving with the times and have decided to go from fire to chemicals.

Yob

Praxichys - 20-4-2017 at 05:54

If you're already going to drill holes for an expanding chemical, you might as well save money and get yourself a pack of shims and wedges.

You only need to drill 3-4 inches deep for wedges. That's far less than the drilling guidelines for any of the expanding chemical stuff, which calls for holes 80-90% through the thickness of the material. The money saved on carbide bits alone will be significant.

Plus, the chemical stuff is expensive and won't work if the hole is horizontal or upside down; the wedges do fine at all angles.

It's also faster since there is less drilling, no mixing and pouring, and no waiting around for chemicals to expand.

https://www.amazon.com/Wedges-Shims-Pkg-Sets/dp/B00383GNCU

curiosity_cat - 29-6-2017 at 07:26

Quote: Originally posted by curiosity_cat  
Quote: Originally posted by PHILOU Zrealone  
dillatation coefficient is


Studying that one thanks, I remember seeing a liquid nitrogen demonstration as a kid before YouTube existed where they cooled the brass ball then it fit through the ring, that was impressive.

An idea I had was using a solar to do the tunneling


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svAPyyUJUCo

Focus solar on a spot then have a system like in the produce section to periodically spray water to hopefully break off a little. Slow but with solar tracking and automation I imagine it could do all the work with little input.




I started this thread in EM http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=75040 and a link to here was posted .



yobbo II - 7-4-2018 at 14:04

https://patents.google.com/patent/EP2651855A1

Would this not actually go 'bang'?

Bert - 7-4-2018 at 17:54

This system is, essentially, a gas generator. Function is NO DIFFERENT in any meaningfull way from good old fashioned blasting powder, it is pyrotechnically initiated and burns a fuel with an oxidizer, although they did cleverly separate the two for transport and storage and load into the bore hole separately.

Hell yes, it will go "BANG!".

It is possibly safer to transport and store than black powder. By regulatory standards, it could be less onerous to transport and use than a ready to ignite gas generator (what we in the trade also call "a deflagrating explosive", at least where the regulators can't hear us).

A company in the Midwest of USA was making gas generator type rock fracturing cartridges on a contract to some other company a few years back. Not an EXPLOSIVE, oh no! MUCH safer, it wasn't that dangerous old fashioned black powder everyone knows about. The wonderful new product only made safe, natural, Earth mother Gaia approved water vapor and innocuous Nitrogen gas, same as 80% of the air you breathe-

Then they managed to accidentally initiate however much of the stuff and finished cartridges were laying about in their production building. Destroyed the building with what looked suspiciously similar to what is technically known as a "fire". Two workers dead, one of the family very seriously burned. I know some of the people involved, the survivor will have a rather reduced quality of life for the rest of his days. 50%+ 2nd and 3rd degree burns will do that, regardless of the chemicals inflicting them.

If it makes enough hot gas to split a rock in a fraction of a second, damn the difference anyway. It is functionally an explosive, and it will kill you for disrespecting it just as quick as any other type of powder.