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AU J.T. 14(1): 56-60 (Jul.

2010)

Drillability and Strength Characteristics of


Selected Rocks in Nigeria
Babatunde Adebayo*, Zacheus Olaniyan Opafunso and
Jide Milliu Akande
Department of Mining Engineering, Federal University of Technology
Akure, Nigeria
E-mail: <*baayoakinola@yahoo.com>

Abstract
This study examines drillability and strength characteristics of selected rocks in
Nigeria. Eight rock samples were selected from different locations in the country and
were tested in the laboratory for uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength,
hardness, and Drilling Rate Index (DRI) using 1,100 kN compression machine, Schmidt
hammer, and miniature drill. The results of uniaxial compressive strength for the eight
selected rocks vary from 89.90 - 124.71 MPa and were classified as very high
compressive strength characteristics and the rock characteristics from Porphyritic
Hornblende-Granite to Medium Biotite-Granite on the basis of point load strength
index range from high to very high strength index. The hardness classification shows
that the rocks characteristics vary from very strong to extremely strong rocks. The
result of correlation showed that strong relationship exist between bit life and rebounds
hardness Value with coefficient of correlation of R2 = 0.926. The drillability
characteristics of the rocks vary from extremely low to low drillability based on the
Drilling Rate Index (DRI) and drill bit life range from very low to extremely low life
span.
Keywords: drillability, strength, characterization, rocks, hardness, schmidt
hammer.
drilling is a matter of applying sufficient force
with a tool to exceed the strength of the rock
(Hartman and Mutmansky 2002). The
behaviour of rock material under compression
is important as the uniaxial compressive
strength of intact rock is a basic parameter for
rock classification and rock mass criteria and
rock classification. Therefore, the strength
characteristics of rocks are usually considered
to be necessary for design of rock structures,
stability of rock excavations as well as
influence rock fragmentation in quarry and
working of mine rocks (Ojo and Olaleye 2002).
In addition Size of fragments may be
influenced drillabilty of rocks (Plinninger et al.
2002). Generally, coarse-grained rock can be
drilled more quickly than fine-grained varieties
or those in which the grain size is variable (Liu
et al. 2002) and it is a measure of brittleness
(Thuro and Spaun 1996).

Introduction
Drillability is the resistance of rock to
penetration
by
a
drilling
technique
(Kramadibrata et al. 2001) and it is a term used
to describe the influence of numbers of
parameters on the drilling rate (drilling
velocity) and the tools wear of the drilling rig.
Penetration of quarriable rocks is influenced by
rock properties as well as machine parameters.
Also, two key parameters have proved to be
most valuable: the (net) drilling rate in metres
per minute (the drilling performance, derived
from the time of drilling one single borehole);
and the bit life span in metres per drilling bit
that can be drilled in a homogeneous tunnel
section (Thuro 1997).
However, the Strength of a rock has an
appreciable influence on drilling force required.
Therefore, to cause rock to break during
Technical Report

56

AU J.T. 14(1): 56-60 (Jul. 2010)

this penetration in 1/10 mm after 200


revolutions of the drill and S20 is defined as the
percentage of material that passes through
11.2-mm sieve after 20 drops of 14-kg weight
and Siever J-Value (SJ) as presented in Table 2.

Materials and Methods


Uniaxial Compressive Strength
The test procedure was in accordance
with ISRM (1981) and ASTM (2001) D 2938.
The uniaxial compressive strength was
determined using Eq. (1) as presented in Table 1:
(1)
Co = P/A = P/(W.D),
where:
Co = Uniaxal compressive strength (MPa);
P = the applied peak load, (kN);
W = Width of the sample (mm);
D = Height of the sample (mm).

Field Measurement of Drill Bit Life


The bit life was determined on field by
monitoring the total depth drilled before the
bits were replace from different quarries in
Nigeria and the results are presented in Table 5.

Results and Discussion


Table 1 presents the summary of strength
properties and hardness of the selected rocks.
Also, bit life was correlated with uniaxial
compressive strength and the result of the
relationship is shown in Fig. 1. It could be
observed that polynomial relationship exist
between bit life and uniaxial compressive
strength expressed by Eq. (5) and weak
relationship exist between them with
correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.586:
BL = -0.012Co3 + 4.051Co2 - 432.1Co + 15435,
(5)
where:
BL is bit life (m/bit);
Co is uniaxial compressive strength (MPa).
Figure 2 shows correlation between bit
life and point load strength index, the result
showed that there is no correlation between bit
life and point load strength index with
coefficient of correlation of R2 = 0.001. Also,
Fig. 3 presents the relationship between bit life
and rebounds hardness value. The result
obtained showed that a strong linear
relationship exists between them with
coefficient of correlation of R2 = 0.926 and the
equation of their relationship is expressed in
Eq. (6):
BL = -7.313RH + 566.9,
(6)
where:
BL is bit life (m/bit);
RH is the rebounds hardness value.
Figure 4 shows that the Drilling Rate
Index (DRI), brittleness value (S20), uniaxial
compressive strength and point load strength
Index vary from one rock to another, it could

Point Load Strength Index


Five rock samples were prepared for each
rock type to the standard suggested by the
International Society of Rock Mechanics
(ISRM 1981) and the American Society for
Testing and Materials International (ASTM
2001) D5731. The point load index was
determined using Eqs. (2)-(3) for blocks as
presented in Table 1:
IS = F/(W.D),
(2)
where:
IS = Point load Strength Index (MPa);
W = Width of the sample (mm);
F = Applied load at Failure (kN).
Equation (3) was proposed by Brook
(1993) to obtain IS value for a standard
diameter of 50 mm IS(50):
(3)
IS(50) = f[F/(4W.D)].
The value of size correction factor was
obtained from Eq. (4):
f = (De/50)0.45.
(4)
Schmidt Rebounds Hardness Values
The rebounds hardness of the was done
in accordance with ISRM (1981) and the
results are presented in Table 1.
Determination of Drilling Rate Index (DRI)
The brittleness test is basically an
aggregate impact test and this was conducted in
accordance with Norwegian soil and Rock
Engineering Association (Borg 1988). The
Siever J-Value test is a miniature drill test and
Technical Report

57

AU J.T. 14(1): 56-60 (Jul. 2010)

therefore be concluded that rock properties


varies widely.
Strength Characterization of Selected Rocks
The selected Nigeria rocks uniaxial
compressive strength and point load strength
index as a measure of tensile strength were
characterized based on ISRM (1981) and Bell
(1992), respectively. Table 3 shows that the
uniaxial compressive strength of all the
selected rocks have very high strength. The
point load strength index of the selected rocks
varies from high strength index for Porphyritic
Hornblende-Granite to very high strength
index for Coarse Biotite-Granite as presented
in Table 4.

Fig. 2. Plot of bit life against point load strength


index.

Table 1. Summary of strength parameters and


rebounds hardness value of selected rocks.
RePoint
Uniaxial
bounds
load
compS/
Rock
hardstrength
ressive
N
code
ness
index
strength
value
(MPa)
(MPa)
1
AD01
91.48
8.85
52.00
2
IK02
89.90
7.22
51.10
3
OR03
121.54
10.50
47.10
OS05
4
94.16
9.44
52.60
4
5
IF05
90.65
7.59
48.00
6
IB06
119.48
10.88
49.40
7
DE07
124.71
13.54
51.00
8
IJ08
90.60
8.19
49.00
Fig. 3. Plot of bit life against rebounds
hardness value.

Fig. 1. Plot of bit


compressive strength.

Technical Report

life

against

Fig 4. Plots of variation of some selected rock


properties.

unaxial

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AU J.T. 14(1): 56-60 (Jul. 2010)


Table 2. Brittleness value (S20) and drilling rate index (DRI) of rock samples for drillability
characteristics.
Rock
code
AD01
IK02
OR03
OS04
IF05
IB06
DE07
IJ08

Name of rock
Porphyritic Hornblende-Granite
Micro Feldspar-Granite
Micro Granite
Medium Feldspar-Granite
Coarse Muscovite-Granite
Biotite- Hornblende Granite
Coarse Biotite-Granite
Medium Biotite-Granite

Brittleness
value (S20)
%
46.0
50.0
50.0
42.0
50.0
42.0
48.0
42.0

Siever
J-Value
(SJ)
0.7
1.0
0.5
0.5
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5

Drilling
rate index
(DRI)
30
39
30
22
40
22
30
22

Drillability
characterization
term
Very low
Low
Very low
Extremely low
Low
Extremely low
Very low
Extremely low

Table 3. Uniaxial compressive strength classification of selected Nigeria rocks.


S/N
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Rock code
AD01
IK02
OR03
OS054
IF05
IB06
DE07
IJ08

Name of rock
Porphyritic hornblende-granite
Micro feldspar-granite
Micro granite
Medium feldspar-granite
Coarse muscovite-granite
Biotite-hornblende granite
Coarse biotite-granite
Medium biotite-granite

Strength
classification
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high

Uniaxial compressive
strength (MPa)
91.47 - 91.54
89.90 - 90.03
120.86 -123.13
94.09 - 94.30
90.51 - 90.86
119.40 -119.60
124.55 -124.71
90.13 - 90.60

Table 4. Point load strength classification of selected Nigeria rocks.


S/N
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Rock Code
AD01
IK02
OR03
OS04
IF05
IB06
DE07
IJ08

Name of rock
Porphyritic hornblende-granite
Micro feldspar-granite
Micro granite
Medium feldspar-granite
Coarse muscovite-granite
Biotite- hornblende granite
Coarse biotite-granite
Medium biotite-granite

Point load Strength


(MPa)
8.85 - 8.59
7.10 - 7.34
10.43 - 10.57
9.39 - 9.54
7.52 - 7.75
10.58 - 10.88
13.03 - 13.54
8.04 - 8.25

Strength
Classification
High
High
Very high
High
High
Very high
Very high
High

Table 5. Classification of bit wear rate and drill bit lifetime of selected Nigeria rocks.
Rock
code
AD01
IK02
OR03
OS04
IF05
IB06
DE07
IJ08

Name of rock
Porphyritic hornblende-granite
Micro feldspar-granite
Micro granite
Medium feldspar-granite
Coarse muscovite-granite
Biotite- hornblende granite
Coarse biotite-granite
Medium biotite-granite

Technical Report

Bit wear
rate/crown life
value (m/bit)
192
192
225
180
210
210
190
210

59

Wear rate term

Drill bit life time


term

Extremely High
Extremely High
Very High
Extremely High
Very High
Very High
Extremely High
Very High

Extremely low
Extremely low
Very low
Extremely low
Very low
Very low
Extremely low
Very low

AU J.T. 14(1): 56-60 (Jul. 2010)

projects. Vol. 3: Rock testing and site


characterization. Pergamon Press, Oxford,
UK, pp. 41-81.
Hartman, H.L.; and Mutmansky, J.M. 2002.
Introductory mining engineering. John
Wiley and Sons, New York, NY, USA.
ISRM. 1981. Rock characterization, testing and
monitoring. In: Brown, E.T. (ed.). ISRM
suggested methods. Commission on Testing
Methods, International Society for Rock
Mechanics (ISRM), Pergamon Press,
Oxford, UK, pp. 75-105.
Kramadibrata, S.; Made, A.R.; Juanda, J.;
Simangunsong, G.M.; and Priagung N.
2001. The use of dimensional analysis to
anlyse the relationship between penetration
rate of Jack Hammer and rock properties
and operational characteristics. Proc.
Indonesian
Mining
Conference
and
Exhibition, 7-8 November 2001, Jakarta,
Indonesia.
Liu, H.Y.; Kou, S.Q.; and Lindqvist, P.-A.
2002. Numerical simulation of the fracture
process in cutting heterogeneous brittle
material.
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Journal
for
Numerical and Analytical Methods in
Geomechanics 26(13): 1,253-78, November.
Ojo, O.; and Olaleye, B.M. 2002. Strength
characteristics of two Nigerian rocks. Global
Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences 8(4):
543-52.
Plinninger, R.J.; Spaun, G.; and Thuro, K.
2002. Predicting tool wear in drill and blast.
Technical review - Drill bit wear. Tunnels
and Tunneling International Magazine 4:
38-41, April.
Thuro, K. 1997. Drillability prediction:
geological influences in hard rock drill and
blast tunnelling. Geologische Rundschau
86(2): 426-38.
Thuro, K.; and Spaun, G. 1996. Introducing
'destruction work' as a new rock property of
toughness referring to drillability in
conventional drill- and blast tunnelling. In:
Barla, G. (Ed). Prediction and performance
in rock mechanics and rock engineering.
Proc. Eurock'96 Conf., 2-5 September 1996,
Torino, Italy, vol. 2, pp. 707-13, Balkema,
Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Wear Classification of Selected Rocks


The bit wear and life of selected South
Western Nigeria rocks was base on
classification suggested by (Thuro 1997). The
results show that the bit wear rate varies
between Very high to extremely high wear rate;
the drill bit life range from extremely low to
very low life span as presented in Table 5.

Conclusion
The results of the laboratory and field
measurements carried out on the selected rocks
from eight different locations in Nigeria have
shown that the properties of rock vary from one
location to another. Strength characterization of
the selected rocks shows that uniaxial
compressive strength range from 89.90 - 90.03
MPa for Micro Feldspar-Granite to 124.55 124.71 MPa for Coarse Biotite-Granite and are
all classified to have very high uniaxial
compressive. The bit life exhibit weak
correlation with uniaxial compressive strength
and strong correlation with rebounds hardness
value. Ultimately, understanding the drillability
and strength characteristics will give
quarry/mine operators the likely response of
rock to drilling and excavation.

References
ASTM. 2001. Standard test method for
determination of rock hardness by rebound
hammer method. Designation D 5873.
American Society for Testing and Materials
(ASTM) International, West Conshohocken,
PA, USA.
Bell, F.G. 1992. Engineering properties of
rocks and soils. Butterworth-Heinemann
Ltd., Oxford, UK, p. 101.
Borg, A. 1988. Hard rock tunnelling boring in
Norway. In: Norwegian Tunnelling Today,
Norwegian Soil and Rock Engineering
Association, Publication No. 5, Tapir
Publishers, Trondheim, Norway, pp. 109-12.
Brook, N. 1993. The measurement and
estimation of basic rock strength. In:
Hudson, J. (ed.-in-chief). Comprehensive
rock engineering. Principles, practice, and
Technical Report

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