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Rock Mechanics.pdf - Mining and Blasting

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BLASTING MECHANICS<br />

17.9 Evaluation of explosive <strong>and</strong> blast performance<br />

17.9.1 General procedures<br />

The current state-of-the-art of explosive engineering practice does not permit prediction<br />

of the performance of a given explosive or blast design in a particular application.<br />

The performances of different explosives in a given geomechanical setting are evaluated<br />

best in experimental blasts which may involve one or two blast holes for each<br />

explosive type. As noted in section 17.2, an underwater test is commonly used to<br />

estimate the energy released from a charge. In test blasts in rock, each trial explosive<br />

should be sampled as it is being loaded into the blast hole <strong>and</strong> its physical <strong>and</strong><br />

chemical properties determined for comparison against specifications.<br />

Measurement techniques used in the field to evaluate the performance of explosives<br />

<strong>and</strong> of experimental blasts include (McKenzie, 1987, 1988)<br />

(a) velocity of detonation timing<br />

(b) near-field vibration monitoring<br />

(c) muckpile surveying<br />

(d) fragmentation measurement<br />

(e) high-speed photography<br />

(f ) gas penetration measurement.<br />

Damage caused to the surrounding rock by a blast may be assessed by a variety of<br />

techniques including the direct measurement of fractures in blastholes <strong>and</strong> on rock<br />

surfaces <strong>and</strong> indirect methods including crosshole or tomographic seismic scans,<br />

in-hole acoustic or seismic profiling, ground probing radar, micro-seismic emission<br />

monitoring, blast vibration measurements, <strong>and</strong> in situ permeability testing (McKenzie,<br />

1988). Because blast damage might be expected to reduce the static <strong>and</strong> dynamic<br />

Young’s moduli of the rock surrounding the blast site, some methods rely on direct<br />

<strong>and</strong> indirect measurements of these properties (e.g. Holmberg et al., 1983). Ground<br />

motions experienced in the far field, including those at the ground surface, may be<br />

measured using systems of the general type discussed in section 18.2.7 for monitoring<br />

micro-seismic activity.<br />

Details of the methods used in making the many types of measurements involved<br />

in assessing explosive <strong>and</strong> blast performance are given in the papers <strong>and</strong> reports<br />

referenced in this section <strong>and</strong> in texts such as those by Johansson <strong>and</strong> Persson (1970)<br />

<strong>and</strong> Dowding (1985). Further consideration here will be restricted to near field ground<br />

motion monitoring, the application of which has produced widespread industrial<br />

benefit.<br />

17.9.2 Near-field ground motion monitoring<br />

The characteristics of the ground motions produced in the near field (say within<br />

100 m) of a production blast will generally be represented by peak particle velocity =<br />

10–1000 mm s −1 , peak dynamic displacement = 0.01–0.5 mm, frequency range =<br />

10–1000 Hz <strong>and</strong> dominant frequency = 50–500 Hz. The instrumentation system<br />

required to measure these motions consists of a transducer array cemented into or<br />

onto the rock, a cable system to transmit the signals from the transducer array to the<br />

monitoring equipment, a signal recorder, <strong>and</strong> a waveform analyser or computer-based<br />

538

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