Performance of Thermally Stable Diamond Composite as Rock Cutting Tips under Varied Depth of Cut

The properties and the performance of Thermally Stable Diamond Composite (TSDC) directly affect the applications of TSDC in engineering. The failure risk of the TSDC cutting tips during a cutting process is affected by many factors, including the Depth of Cut (DOC) of the pick with the TSDC tip. The DOC is an important indicator in mining and construction industries because it directly affects productivity and pick failures. In existing studies, DOC is usually treated as a deterministic variable. However, due to the drum vibration during a cutting process, the DOC during production often varies randomly around its nominal value. This study investigates the influence of the randomly varied DOC on the performance and failure characteristics of TSDC tipped rock cutting picks, in combination with random resultant angle. Monte Carlo simulation method is applied. It is found that the variation in DOC can have considerable influence on the failure characteristics of the TSDC cutting tips, although this influence is affected by the resultant angle and attack angle. This characteristic is important for optimising the design and application of the TSDC tipped picks.