# 9.6: Specific Energy


For the cases as described above, cutting with a straight blade with the direction of the cutting velocity vc perpendicular to the blade (edge of the blade), the specific cutting energy Esp is:

$\ \mathrm{E}_{\mathrm{sp}}=\frac{\mathrm{F}_{\mathrm{h}} \cdot \mathrm{v}_{\mathrm{c}}}{\mathrm{h}_{\mathrm{i}} \cdot \mathrm{w} \cdot \mathrm{v}_{\mathrm{c}}}=\frac{\mathrm{F}_{\mathrm{h}}}{\mathrm{h}_{\mathrm{i}} \cdot \mathrm{w}}\tag{9-34}$

The specific energy of the Flow Type of cutting mechanism can be written as:

$\ \mathrm{E}_{\mathrm{s p}}=\lambda_{\mathrm{H F}} \cdot \mathrm{c}\tag{9-35}$

The specific energy of the Curling Type of cutting mechanism can be written as:

$\ \mathrm{E}_{\mathrm{s p}}=\lambda_{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{C}} \cdot \mathrm{c}\tag{9-36}$

Appendix X: Hyperbaric Rock Cutting Charts: Contains graphs for blade angles from 30 degrees up to 120 degrees, covering both dredging and offshore drilling applications.

This page titled 9.6: Specific Energy is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Sape A. Miedema (TU Delft Open Textbooks) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.