PROPERTIES OF SOUNDLESS CHEMICAL DEMOLITION AGENTS

The traditional approach to demolish concrete structures or to reduce the sizes of large rocks or boulders has typically included the use of explosives. The resulting explosions are associated with the obvious risks posed by shock waves and fly rock. These, along with other detri mental side effects of using explosives, have increased an interest in the use of alternative methods to demolish rock and concrete structur es. Soundless chemical demolition agents (SCDAs) have proven to be via ble substitutes for the use of explosives. SCDAs are powdery materials that will expand considerably when mixed with water. This expansion, when occurring under confinement, generates significant expansive pres sures. These pressures are sufficient to break up rock and concrete wh en the SCDA is confined in a borehole or a series of boreholes. Experi ments have been conducted with SCDAs to learn more about those variabl es that tend to hamper or enhance SCDA performance. Results show that the amount of mixing water and the ambient temperature are the most im portant variables in influencing the generation of SCDA expansive pres sures.