A dynamic ball compression test for understanding rock crushing

During crushing, rock particles are subjected to complicated loading. It is desired to establish the relation between the loading and the fragmentation parameters for better understanding rock crushing mechanism. In this work, a split Hopkinson pressure bar system in combination with high speed cameras is utilized in the dynamic ball compression test, in which the spherical rock sample is adopted to avoid the shape effect. Using elasticity theory, the loading rate and the dynamic indirect tensile strength are first calculated. With the aid of the moment-trap technique and high speed cameras, the surface energy is determined for each sample. The relations between the loading rate and the fragmentation parameters, i.e., the number of fragments and the surface energy are established. The application of this method to a granitic rock shows that it is flexible and can be applied to the crushing study of generic brittle solids.