• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.725-733
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• 2022

This study applied a hydraulic rock splitting system equipped with a hybrid packer to the bench-cut method. The hybrid packer system is an improvement of the packer developed in previous studies; it is designed efficiently to reduce vibration and noise during rock excavation by combining the two functions of inducing hydraulic fractures using injection pressure and then expanding and extending them using a rubber packer. Field experiments assessed the efficiency of rock excavation with respect to the injection conditions; the adjusted experimental conditions included the distance from the free surface and the test holes drilled at the top of the slope and the injection settings. Using a separation of 5 m left some unexcavated parts, but using a separation of 1 m left no unexcavated parts. The hydraulic fractures generated by the injection pressure developed generally parallel to the free surface and expanded and extended as the rubber packer expanded, thus facilitating bench-cut excavation. For hydraulic rock splitting to be broadly applicable to bench-cut rock excavation, it is important to accumulate results from many field experiments conducted under varying experimental conditions for various types of rockmass.