Theory of Dynamic Confinement

Confinement is an important aspect of blasting. Reducing and increasing confinement can determine whether a blast design performs properly. Over-confined shots usually have poor fragmentation, higher vibrations, and stemming ejection, and unconfined shots usually have a lot of air blast and fly rock. When talking about confinement in blasting, static confinement conditions are typically referenced. Static confinement conditions are ruled by free faces, shot muck, burden, spacing, stemming, hole depth, toe, etc. All these conditions exist in a static state. Static confinement conditions are generally analyzed before the shot takes place, but once the shot starts, the conditions will change according to the sequence and delay of the shot. Once the shot starts, Dynamic confinement takes place. For the authors, Dynamic confinement is the confinement conditions that exist for the charge when it fires and should account not only for the variables included for the static confinement but also for the time and sequence of the shot. The paper explores the theory of dynamic confinement and its role in influencing blast performance. Time and sequence are the main influencers of dynamic confinement and will be the focus of the paper. How to generate the appropriate timing based on blast design, dynamic confinement, static confinement, and geology will also be discussed.