ORIGINAL PAPER Laboratory Investigations for the Role of Flushing Media in Diamond Drilling of Marble A. Bhatnagar • Manoj Khandelwal • K. U. M. Rao Received: 20 February 2010 / Accepted: 21 March 2011 / Published online: 3 April 2011 Ó Springer-Verlag 2011 Abstract Marble is used as a natural stone for decorative purposes from ages. Marble is a crystalline rock, composed predominantly of calcite, dolomite or serpentine. The presence of impurities imparts decorative pattern and col- ors. The diamond-based operations are extensively used in the mining and processing of marble. Marble is mined out in the form of blocks of cuboids shape and has to undergo extensive processing to make it suitable for the end users. The processing operation includes slabbing, sizing, pol- ishing, etc. Diamond drilling is also commonly used for the exploration of different mineral deposits throughout the world. In this paper an attempt has been made to enhance the performance of diamond drilling on marble rocks by adding polyethylene-oxide (PEO) in the flushing water. The effect of PEO added with the drilling water was studied by varying different machine parameters and flushing media concentration in the laboratory. The responses were rate of penetration and torque at bit-rock interface. Different physico-mechanical properties of marble were also determined. It was found that flushing water added with PEO can substantially enhance the pen- etration rates and reduce the torque developed at the bit- rock interface as compared to plain flushing water. Keywords Marble  Rotary diamond drilling  Cutting  Flushing media  Polyethylene oxide  Rate of penetration  Torque 1 Introduction Nowadays, stones which have polish taking capability are recognized as marble. Petrologically, marble is a re-crys- tallized (metamorphosed) limestone. Generally, any crys- talline rock predominantly composed of calcite, dolomite or serpentine having hardness of 3–4 on Mohs scale and capable of taking polish is identified as marble. Chemical impurities may also be present in the marble, such as silica (SiO 2 ) in the form of free quartz or silicate, iron oxide (Fe 2 O 3 ), manganese oxide (MnO 2 ), alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) in the form of aluminum silicate, etc. The presence of these chemical impurities usually imparts decorative patterns and colors of marble. Diamond drilling is one of the most common opera- tions in mineral-based industries in general and marble industry in particular. In mining, diamond drilling is employed starting from the exploration stage to develop- ment, production and until completion of whole mining activities. Rock is drilled for the various purposes. Dia- mond drilling takes a unique place due to its diverse applications in the exploratory drilling. Importance of intact core recovery to determine the various physico- mechanical properties as well as classification of rock mass has highlighted the significance of diamond core drilling. Diamond-based cutting is most essential opera- tion in the marble industry, which incorporates diamond wire sawing to extract the marble blocks from mines vis- a `-vis gang and blade sawing in the processing (Ersoy and Atici 2004). A. Bhatnagar  M. Khandelwal (&) Department of Mining Engineering, College of Technology and Engineering, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur 313 001, India e-mail: mkhandelwal1@gmail.com K. U. M. Rao Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721 302, India 123 Rock Mech Rock Eng (2011) 44:349–356 DOI 10.1007/s00603-011-0144-7