The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 30, 1984
Filed:
Aug. 11, 1982
Richard H Wesley, Houston, TX (US);
Richard A Ayres, El Cajon, CA (US);
Other;
Abstract
Electrohydraulic fracturing of rock and other dense materials is accomplished by coupling a hydraulic medium to the material to be fractured and inducing an explosive electrical discharge in the coupling medium in close proximity to the dense material thus developing an electrohydraulic shock wave in the coupling medium. This shock wave is transmitted into the rock or other dense material as an advancing compressive strain pulse which radiates from the explosive electrical discharge through the dense material until it is reflected by a free surface as a tensile strain pulse. The tensile strain pulse is impedance matched with the dense material to be fractured such that the tensile strain pulse induces in situ fracturing of the dense material. A motor driven generator system which provides alternating current to a control unit which incorporates a transformer and diode controlled bridge rectifier system providing stepped up DC voltage. The DC voltage is stored in a capacitor bank and is subsequently discharged through an exploding wire element or spark gap to develop the explosive electrical discharge.