A new approach to evaluate rock drillability of polycrystalline diamond compact bits using scratch test data

Rock drillability is a comprehensive index that indicates the ease of drilling a hole in the rock mass, which is a main basis for the design of drilling bits, the optimization of drilling operational parameters, and the prediction of rate of penetration. This paper established a conversion relationship between mechanical specific energy measured from micro-drilling tests and mechanical specific energy measured from scratch tests, based on the consistency of rock breaking mechanism between these two types of tests. By incorporating the methodology of calculating rock drillability grade of polycrystalline diamond compact bits, a new mathematical model for predicting rock drillability of polycrystalline diamond compact bits is developed. Subsequently, a new method for acquiring continuous rock drillability profile by scratching the core surface is developed. A wide range of rocks with different hardness were tested by the proposed scratch method. The results show that the new model has high consistency with the results of laboratory micro-drilling tests. For example, the average errors of sandstone, shale, and carbonate test results are only 7.41%, 8.18%, and 4%, respectively. The new method can fully characterize the effect of mineral composition, cementation strength, and microstructure of rock on drillability. Besides, the new model has high utilization efficiency of expensive core samples because the core usually remains nondestructive after scratch tests.