Outlook of ice excavation techniques

• Main Author: Yosio Suzuki
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: National Institute of Polar Research 1985
• Subjects: geo; envir; Dyna; Greenland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.15094/00008455; https://doaj.org/article/a230effdf2764bc7a8e127213c8f2576

In earth boring it is common to circulate drilling mud in the bored hole. The two purposes of the circulation, besides removal of cuttings, are to cool cutters and to preserve the hole, which are both unimportant in ice boring. Hence, because of its light weight, a cable-suspended core drill which treats cuttings locally is preferred to a drill using the mud circulation which needs heavy equipments. The drilling time with a core drill is discussed in detail. An important problem in deep ice boring is the hole closure due to ice pressure. Technique to fill the hole with liquid to cope with the hole closure is introduced. Then, various kinds of ice drills are introduced and assessed. Included are : auger drills, rotary machines, turbo drills, dyna drills, cable-suspended electromechanical and electrothermal drills, steam drills, hot-water drills and flame-jet drills. Tunnel and trench excavations carried out in Greenland are briefly introduced at the end.