Coal and Minerals Comminution with High Pressure Waterjet Assistance

The investigations conducted in the High Pressure Lab at the University of Missouri-Rolla demonstrated the ability of high pressure waterjets to excavate coal and minerals, disintegrate materials and as well as to comminute coal and minerals. Additional progress in comminution can be achieved if the compressive crushing principle commonly used at present is changed to one where particles are fragmented by the tensile growth of preexisting internal flaws or cracks, under internal waterjet pressure. This idea was studied in a number of tests. It covers tests with different jets imposed on coal and rock samples during compressive load as well as without any loading.