Cavitating liquid jet assisted drill bit and method for deep-hole drilling
AssigneeHydronautics, Incorporated
InventorsVirgil E. Johnson, Jr., T. R. Sundaram, Andrew F. Conn
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Abstract
A drill bit and a method for deep-hole drilling in which the drill bit has mechanical cutting means located on its lower cutting face for cutting a solid surface upon rotation of the bit and a plurality of cavitating liquid jet nozzles spaced around the face of the bit to assist in the drilling action, the nozzles being located so as to discharge a plurality of downwardly directed and concentric liquid jets that cavitate to fracture the surface to be drilled in a series of non-overlapping slots as the bit is rotated.
Claims4
A cavitating liquid jet nozzle for causing cavitational errosion of a solid surface comprising a housing for receiving a liquid and having an inlet end and an outlet end, said housing having an interior chamber tapering from the inlet end toward a narrower orifice at the outlet end and being shaped in accordance with the following formula:
- ##EQU2## wherein D.sub.O is the initial diameter of the chamber;
- D.sub.E is the diameter of the outlet orifice;
- L is the distance between D.sub.O and D.sub.E ;
- and D is the diameter of the chamber at any point between D.sub.O and D.sub.E at a distance X from D.sub.O and wherein D.sub.O /L is 2 or greater;
- D.sub.O /D.sub.E is 3 or greater;
- and n is 2 or greater.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.