Mechanism of Dielectric Breakdown in Heterogeneous Rock

Electric impulse drilling (EID) technology has great industrialization potential since it has unique advantages in crushing hard rocks of deep formation. To study the mechanism of dielectric breakdown is of great significance for accelerating the practical application of EID technology. In this paper, the dielectric breakdown damage model (DBDM) is established based on the heterogeneous granite model. On the basis of DBDM, the whole process of absolute dielectric breakdown (ADB) is studied, including the formation of the plasma channel and the variation of the electric field. Then, the mechanism of regional dielectric breakdown (RDB) development to ADB is studied, and the influence of peak voltage, electrode spacing and the parameters of a high-voltage electric pulse (HVEP) is discussed. Besides, the efficiency of two dielectric breakdown modes is evaluated. It is found that dielectric breakdown will only occur in the domain where the strength of the local electric field formed by HVEP exceeds the critical breakdown field strength of rock. RDB will occur when the pulse duration is too short or the peak voltage is too low. It is worth noting that RDB can be developed into ADB under multi-HVEPs. Moreover, under the same voltage, there is almost no difference between the failure volume caused by RDB under multi-HVEPs and ADB under a single HVEP. However, the energy consumption of the RDB under multi-HVEPs decreases exponentially with increasing voltage and is always higher than that of the ADB under a single HVEP. When designing the supporting tools and bits of EID technology, the life of insulation, the characteristics of formation, and energy utilization should be fully considered. The related research in this paper aims to provide reference and guidance for the application of EID technology in drilling engineering.