The nature has given many precious elements to the mankind. They are used for different purposes in society. Many of these elements are modified as per the requirement or purpose by various technologies and make the element fit for concerned used. Development of civilization involves not only building construction, but also more difficult projects like dams, tunnels. Such activities involve dealing with rock testing machine. Rock testing involves determination of the strength as well as elastic properties. The construction in rocky areas involves rock fills, slopes, deeper foundation, rock present a complex nature of physical properties that are not consistent across a given mass.
Typical tests on rocks include loading-strength (which may be compressive or tensile strength).
Other common tests are:
Direct Shear, Triaxial Test, Brazilian test, permeability, elastic modulus, and slake durability, Abrasion test, particle grades, water absorption capacity. Like other testing, here also sample preparation is based on specific standards. The specimen is generally of the shape of core that are drilled out. The L-to-D ratio is important here.
The testing and quality:
To check the water absorption, flakiness, particle grade, degradation factors and more, one needs to for different types of tests of rock so that they can comply with Australian standards. Many other common laboratory equipment like pH meter, Oven, and toolings are also used for this purpose. In the case of soil testing, Triaxial test of rock samples also involves precise loading patterns that are possible with the use of high capacity servo hydraulic load frames driven by hydraulic power packs and servo valve controls. Apart from the destructive testing, rock tests are also carried out with Non-Destructive techniques (NDT) like the ultrasonicrock pulse velocity test, radiography test, etc.
The plasma bit is a unique device which works under extreme conditions up to 10km beneath Earth surface effectively.
The rock testing device:
The rock testing device consists of many sub systems, such as systems for motion, rock disintegration control systems, cooling systems and backup systems. It is designed to simulate contact between locking elements and the surface of the geothermal well. Main reason of developing the testing device is to verify system’s ability to carry out required functions. Goal is to be achieved is to find out whether it comes to movement of locked locking elements or not under the given load and normal forces.
The testing device consists of a hydraulic press, which is available in one laboratory. The hydraulic press is suitable for given task because it can generate adequate force and this force can be measured and recorded.
There are subjects to be verified during the test, such as properties of rocks under high pressure, experimental verification of the friction factor on selected and measurement of wear of locking elements. For quality rock one has to pass it through various tests and technical assessment so that it can be rightly used for the specific purpose. The use of a rock varies and hence one needs to go for the tests accordingly.