A practical model law for chemical explosive fracture of oil shale

A scale model law is developed for fracturing of oil shale by chemical explosives. The design of practical model scale experiments to verify the law and to obtain data on fracture characteristics of shale or a brittle simulant of shale under explosive loading is discussed. The compressive failure characteristics of samples of oil shale are determined from small specimens under controlled laboratory conditions. These data are reported for a wide range of strain rates and initial confining pressures simulating overburden stresses, for three grades of shale. Shock Hugoniots for shale are estimated. A review of the literature on rock fracture under explosive loading, and properties of gaseous and condensed explosives, is included.