Experimental regularities in formation of submicron particles under rock failure

Based on the developed procedure, experimental regularities are obtained for the formation of submicron particles under rock failure. The experiments involved explosion load on rock specimens and their uniaxial compression with the concurrent control over size and amount of particles until failure using laser spectrometry. It is found that most of all particles are formed in the size grade of a few microns irrespective of the kind of loading. Dynamics of the formation of particles depends on structural characteristics of specimens and on the value of the compression stress. The authors emphasize the promising nature of the experimental results usable both in the environmental monitoring and for disaster prediction in the course of mining.