Assessment of Excavatability Index in Freezable Blasted Rock Mass

Abstract

The regularities of change in mechanical characteristics of heterogeneous structure of frozen geomaterials depending on grain size composition, temperature, moisture content and density of sample packing are determined. It is found that the major influence is exerted on the shear strength, internal friction angle and cohesion in the samples structurally commensurable with blasted rock mass by temperature, moisture content and packing. In the size range of 10–40 mm of inclusions in a sample, the internal friction angle drops by 2 times while the cohesion jumps by the same value. It is shown that blasted frozen rocks prone to re-adfreezing is a complex medium possessing properties of intact uniform rock mass.