Western Europe

Large-diameter drilling, or shaft sinking by drilling method, was first experimentally studied in Western Europe.In 1850, German engineer Kent used percussion drilling equipment to sink a shaft with a diameter of 4.15 meters and a depth of 263 meters. The initial attempt to use wooden cylindrical structures for supporting water-bearing unconsolidated formations failed. Later, the cast iron shaft support mechanism invented by Belgian Soderot was adopted, which successfully sealed the aquifer. This method was then called the Kent-Soderot Drilling Method. From 1852 to 1900, Western European countries drilled nearly 200 shafts using this method. However, due to the complex forces acting on the drill pipe during drilling, such as bending and impact forces, drilling tools often fell into the shaft, so the method did not see further development.

In the early 20th century, Polish engineer Wolski invented a hydraulic rotary percussion drilling machine. Its drill bit consisted of many small percussion bits, which not only generated continuous percussion under hydraulic action but also rotated slowly with the drill pipe to break rock. Restricted by the hydraulic manufacturing technology at that time, this invention failed to be developed.

In 1871, German engineer Hoenigmann began experimental research on rotary drilling machines and drilled two wells with a diameter of 1.5 meters and a depth of 85 meters. Characterized by breaking rock through rotary motion of drilling tools, this drilling method could form a well in one step or by multiple reaming steps, adopted decompression drilling, used mud for flushing and wall protection, and 下沉 well casings by suspension method. Its success laid the foundation for the modern drilling method, and its core technologies, such as the air reverse circulation flushing and slag discharge method, are still in use today.

From 1892 to the 1950s, European countries drilled more than 30 wells using Hoenigmann's method, with diameters ranging from 2 to 7.65 meters and depths from 80 to 512 meters, with a total footage of 5,300 meters. Scraper bits were used for drilling unconsolidated overburden, and roller bits for bedrock drilling.

Roller Bits

The United States introduced drilling technology from Western Europe in 1910, but its large-scale application did not occur until 50 years later. Starting from 1950, many shafts in the United States (mostly underground nuclear test wells) adopted the drilling method, and a technical experimental station was established to conduct experimental research on large-diameter drilling technology. According to incomplete statistics, from 1953 to 1967, more than 360 shafts with diameters of 0.91 to 5 meters were drilled by the drilling method. Half of them were underground nuclear test wells, most with diameters less than 1.53 meters; about 60 were coal mine ventilation shafts with diameters of 1.8 to 3.6 meters; another 60 with a diameter of about 1.37 meters were used in the natural gas industry; the remaining 90 were used in the potash, salt, hard asphalt, uranium, lead and magnesium mining industries. In addition, the United States also applied the drilling method to bridge foundations, oil storage and other fields. The deepest well drilled by the United States was 1,708 meters deep with a diameter of 3.05 meters.

Underground Nuclear Test Wells

After 1960, the proportion of drilling in the United States increased rapidly. The drilling footage in 1967 reached 35,600 meters, 23 times that in 1959.Most of the drilling machines used in the United States at that time were modified from oil drilling or water well drilling rigs, and many rigs were self-propelled. Single-pass well formation was mostly adopted, with a small number of reaming well formation.

Reaming Well Formation

Most mine shafts in the United States used downhole power drilling machines. In the early stage, the "Zini" type downhole core drilling machine was used, with a derrick of the lifting boom type. The cuttings were concentrated in the sedimentation cylinder of the drilling machine, and the core was extracted with a special extractor in one round trip. By 1967, 20 wells had been drilled with this downhole core drilling machine in the United States, with a maximum depth of 150 meters. However, this drilling machine was only suitable for non-fractured formations with low water inflow. Later, a new type of drilling machine called the Drave downhole drilling machine was developed, which adopted the full-face rock breaking drilling method, with a maximum well diameter of 3.66 meters and a depth of 488 meters.

In relatively unconsolidated formations, when the well diameter was small and the depth did not exceed 40 meters, spiral bits could be used for drilling; for large well diameters, spiral bits could also be used for well opening. At the same time, the United States developed a high-speed water jet drilling method, which could drill a well with a diameter of 6.1 meters at a footage of 3 meters per hour. The nozzle diameter of the drill bit was 1 millimeter, the jet velocity reached 1,220 meters per second, and the water pressure was 35,000 to 70,000 atmospheres, capable of drilling the hardest rocks.

Granite

The Soviet Union began to use the drilling method in 1936. From 1940 to 1950, 26 wells with diameters of 5 to 6.2 meters were drilled using equipment modified from oil drilling rigs, with a total depth of 1,840 meters. It was not until 1950, when the Y3TM6.2 shaft drilling machine was manufactured, that the Soviet Union entered a new era of drilling. In 1964, the Y3TM8.75 drilling machine was developed, with improvements in many aspects. The Soviet Union also successively developed the YKE core drilling machine, PTE turbine drilling machine, TM type and KEY type downhole drilling rigs. According to statistics, the Soviet Union developed more than 35 types of drilling machines with different forms and specifications. Over the past 30 years, the Soviet Union has drilled about 177 wells with a total footage of 42,700 meters.

Germany was one of the earliest and most active countries in adopting the drilling method. In 1850, 13 wells with diameters of 2.8 to 7.3 meters and depths of 80.2 to 422 meters were drilled, with a total footage of more than 2,400 meters.

Before 1958, West Germany drilled wells with a diameter of 7.62 meters, but in recent years, the diameter has mostly been about 2.4 meters. In terms of drilling machine manufacturing, West Germany took the lead, owning models such as SG-500, WB-160/40, GSB450, and Series L (2, 3, 4, 10 types). A few years ago, it also specially designed and manufactured the L-40 type for China, with a single-pass well formation diameter of 4 meters and a reaming diameter of up to 8 meters. For drilling in overburden, West Germany developed a three-wing bit to solve the problem of bit mud balling.

Three-Wing Bits

The Netherlands was also one of the earliest countries to use the drilling method. As early as the 1890s, the Netherlands adopted Hoenigmann's drilling method to drill a coal mine shaft with a diameter of 4.5 meters and a depth of 108 meters. From 1955 to 1960, two wells with a diameter of 7.65 meters and depths of 512 meters and 505 meters were drilled, which were completely watertight with a central error of only 30 millimeters.

In addition to the above countries, more than 20 countries including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Hungary, Poland and Romania have also adopted the drilling method successively, drilling nearly 1,000 large-diameter wells.

The first application of large-diameter drilling in engineering was in 1959 for the construction of an 8,720-meter-long expressway bridge over Lake Maracaibo Bay in Venezuela, South America. It was the first successful use of rotary drilling method in foundation treatment engineering, which attracted the attention and promotion of the world's civil engineering community.

Lake Maracaibo Bay

Japan adopted the drilling method relatively late but developed it rapidly. In 1962, Japan introduced the PS-150 type reverse circulation drilling machine from Zarz Base Company of West Germany. In 1964, Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. cooperated with Zarz Base Company of West Germany to develop and manufacture Series S drilling machines. Later, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., Tone Drilling Machine Co., Ltd. and Kato Works Co., Ltd. successively developed and manufactured reverse circulation rotary drilling machines for foundation engineering, with more than 20 models.

In 1972, to meet the needs of offshore rock drilling for the foundations of the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway in Japan, rock drilling machines with a diameter of 3.6 meters targeting the multi-column foundations of the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge were developed successively, including the L-10S type from Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries, the MD360 type from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the KSD-4 type from Kawasaki Heavy Industries and the BM-1 type from Nippon Steel Corporation. All of these were used for offshore granite drilling for the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge project. In 1977, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries developed the MD-400 type engineering shaft drilling rig, which completed offshore engineering drilling with diameters of 4 meters and 7 meters for the multi-column foundations of the Naruto Bridge.

Naruto Bridge

China began experimental research on the drilling method in 1958. At that time, water conservancy, coal, bridge and other departments conducted tests with diameters of 1 meter and 3.2 meters respectively and gained some experience.

In the second half of 1966, Luoyang Mining Machinery Research Institute and other units jointly designed China's first experimental rotary drilling machine, and in May 1969, China's first mine shaft was drilled.

Luoyang Mining Machinery Factory

Subsequently, the Hongyang drilling machine for single-pass well formation in overburden with a diameter of 5.2 meters, a downhole power rotary drilling machine successfully designed by a certain unit, and the SZ9/700 type shaft drilling rig capable of drilling a 9-meter diameter were developed.

Shaft Drilling Rigs

In terms of engineering drilling, a 1-meter diameter foundation grouting inspection well was drilled for the Sanmenxia Project in 1958. The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge in 1955 and the subsequent Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge both conducted percussion drilling with a diameter of 3.6 meters. Many projects on the Yangtze River Basin adopted 1-meter diameter foundation exploration core drilling. A 1-meter diameter foundation reinforcement well for an existing project was drilled at the FoziLing Reservoir in the Huaihe River Basin in 1965. The Gezhouba Project conducted a 2-meter diameter anti-pile test and 1-meter diameter resistance body reinforcement pile drilling. Later, the Chongqing Yangtze River Bridge and Jiujiang Bridge conducted river bed bored pile wells with diameters of 2.5 meters and 3 meters respectively.

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge

In recent years, with the development of construction, large-diameter engineering drilling has expanded to national defense, high-rise building foundations, sewage treatment and other fields. Drilling machines have evolved from the original modified oil drilling and water well drilling rigs to special large-diameter engineering drilling machines for overburden.