Dotto, M.S.; Pourrahimian, Y. The Influence of Explosive and Rock Mass Properties on Blast Damage in a Single-Hole Blasting. Mining2024, 4, 168-188.
Dotto, M.S.; Pourrahimian, Y. The Influence of Explosive and Rock Mass Properties on Blast Damage in a Single-Hole Blasting. Mining 2024, 4, 168-188.
Dotto, M.S.; Pourrahimian, Y. The Influence of Explosive and Rock Mass Properties on Blast Damage in a Single-Hole Blasting. Mining2024, 4, 168-188.
Dotto, M.S.; Pourrahimian, Y. The Influence of Explosive and Rock Mass Properties on Blast Damage in a Single-Hole Blasting. Mining 2024, 4, 168-188.
Abstract
In rock blasting for mining production, stress waves play a major role in rock fracturing along with explosion gases. Better energy distribution improves fragmentation and safety, lowers production costs, increases productivity, and controls ore losses and dilution. Blast outcomes vary significantly with the choice of the explosive and the properties of the rock mass encountered. This study analyzes the effects of rock mass and explosives properties on the blast outcomes through numerical simulation using data from the case study and later validates the simulation results from the field blast fragmentation. The outcomes suggest that, for a given set of rock properties, the choice of explosive has a major influence on the resulting fragmentation. Strong explosives favor large fracture extents in hard rocks, while less strong explosives offer a better distribution of explosive energy and fractures. The presence of rock structures such as rock con-tacts and joints influences the propagation of stress waves and fractures depending on the structures' material properties, intensity and orientations, and the direction and strength of the stress wave. To achieve effective fragmentation, the blast design should mitigate the effect of variability in the rock mass by ensuring adequate energy distribution within the limits of geo-metrical design.
Keywords
Blast fragmentation; numerical simulation; rock mass properties; explosive properties; rock damage
Subject
Engineering, Mining and Mineral Processing
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
