The process of rock mass cutting by rotary drilling belongs to the most frequently applied technologies in the underground construction. As rotary drilling is quite energy-demanding process, it makes sense to pay sufficient consideration to the efficiency of the applied operational regime of drilling. Only the efficient drilling mode can guarantee the overall quality of this process. This contribution builds upon previous works of the authors in the field of application of abstract Hilbert spaces in control of specific processes. Several possibilities and aspects of visualization of vibrations accompanying the rock drilling are outlined, related to the efficient control of rock drilling process.
Rotary drilling of rocks belongs to one of the most widely applied technologies of rock cutting in mining and geotechnical applications. Drilling is a very energy- and material-demanding process, which has to be controlled in order to achieve the efficient operational regime considering the energy consumption. The drilling regime is usually controlled by several regulating parameters, such as the thrust force of the drilling bit, the revolutions of the drilling bit and by the amount and quality of drilling mud. It is possible to express the rock drilling efficiency by the specific drilling energy. Conventional methods of process control (based on direct measurement of the process variables) are used only seldom, as direct measurement of specific energy is not feasible using common means. Heterogeneity of drilled rock types, variety of drilling bits and different drilling conditions cause that it is almost impossible to determine a generally valid relationship between the drilling regime and its efficiency.
The paper outlines a possible approach to the control of such complex process as rock drilling. The approach applies the signal of vibrations accompanying the process of rock drilling as the main source of information on the nature process. As proved by the previous research by the authors' research groups, the character of properly measured vibration signal corresponds to the mechanical properties of rocks and to the applied drilling mode (e.g. Krepelka et al. 2008, Miklúšová et al. 2011, Krúpa & Lazarová 2011).
