Rock breaking performance of a pick assisted by high-pressure water jet under different configuration modes

In the process of rock breaking, the conical pick bears great cutting force and wear, as a result, high-pressure water jet technology is used to assist with cutting. However, the effect of the water jet position has not been studied for rock breaking using a pick. Therefore, the models of rock breaking with different configuration modes of the water jet are established based on SPH combined with FEM. The effect of the water jet pressure, distance between the jet and the pick bit, and cutting depth on the rock breaking performance as well as a comparison of the tension and compression stress are studied via simulation; the simulation results are verified by experiments. The numerical and experimental results indicate that the decrease in the rates of the pick force obviously increases from 25 MPa to 40 MPa, but slowly after 40 MPa, and the optimal distance between the jet and the pick bit is 2 mm under the JFP and JSP modes. The JCP mode is proved the best, followed by the modes of JRP and JFP, and the worst mode is JSP. The decrease in the rates of the pick force of the JCP, JRP, JFP, and JSP modes are up to 30.96%, 28.96%, 33.46%, 28.17%, and 25.42%, respectively, in experiment. Moreover, the JSP mode can be regarded as a special JFP model when the distance between the pick-tip and the jet impact point is 0 mm. This paper has a dominant capability in introducing new numerical and experimental method for the study of rock breaking assisted by water jet and electing the best water jet position from four different configuration modes.