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By John N. Jr Edl

Geokinetics, Inc. has pioneered an in-situ oil shale retorting production process that provides the requisite void space for producing a permeable rubble bed, within the retort zone, by using the explosive energy from vertical blastholes to lift the overburden. By installing suitable instrumentation on the surface of the overburden over an appropriate blasting pattern, it is possible to obtain estimates of the average radius of gas penetration around the blasthole and the average volume, per unit length of blasthole, that is actually occupied by the explosively produced gases (which includes both the volume of the cracks that are penetrated by the gas pressure and the deformed blasthole volume). It is expected that these estimates can be used to examine, and quantify, the effects of such blast design parameters as the type of explosive, the blasthole diameter, the geometry of the explosive charge (length to diameter ratio), and the relative timing of sets of charges.

Jan 1, 1983

By Virgil J. Stachura, Larry R. Fletcher

The Bureau of Mines conducted a series of delayed blasting experiments at a West Virginia contour coal mine which resulted in smoother highwalls. The highwalls were smoother due to reduced overbreak and inherently safer due to reduced likelihood of rockfall. Reduced overbreak was accomplished by an increase in the highwall hole delay intervals which changed the effective delay pattern geometry and the direction of burden movement. Three combinations of blast delay intervals in the highwall holes were tested: 1) 50 ms longer than the nominal design, 2) 50- and 100-ms longer delays in the nearest two rows that form the highwall, and 3) 100 ms longer than the nominal design. The mine's nominal blast design was a flat vee formed by 17-ms surface delays between holes and 42-ms surface delays between rows, with 200-ms in-the-hole delays. All three test designs produced highwall improvements over the nominal design with only occasional exceptions because of geologic variations.

Jan 1, 1985

By L D. Santis, L Wardrip

This paper begins with a summary of the development of the sheathed explosive charge from it's conception by the Bureau of Mines in 1981 through the evaluation of its safety, culminating in revisions to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 30, Parts 15 and 75 which provide for its approval as a permissible explosive and safe use in underground coal mines. In 1989, Austin Powder Company decided to market a sheathed charge and proceeded to develop a commercial version which they call the Rock*Buster. The Rock*Buster was tested by the Bureau of Mines and subsequently approved as a permissible sheathed explosive unit by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Marketing of the Rock*Buster began in the Spring of 1990. In May 1990, the Rock*Buster was first used in an underground coal mine, Jim Walter Resources' (JWR) No. 4 Mine in Brookwood, AL. Trials with Austin's units were impressive. Representatives from MSHA, the State of Alabama, JWR, the United Mine Workers, and other local mining companies observed the charge break large boulders on the surface. Later, the charges were used underground to break large rocks from a roof fall that were obstructing ventilation. During its first week on the job, the Rock*Buster reduced the downtime experienced on JWR's longwall sections by quickly taking care of problem roof falls which halt operations.

Jan 1, 1991

This paper describes the circuit simulations based on SPICE of the SDI Electronic Detonator System at the system level. SDI is launching the Electronic Detonator System with a robust serial protocol exhibiting great ease in field usability and deployment. Programmable delay time with increment of 1 ms up to 10s is possible. Bus length of up to 2 km containing 1600 detonators can be utilized. This system was analyzed using SPICE simulations and an Excel-based firing model spreadsheet. The effects of wire diameter, resistivity, detonator leakage characteristics, blasting array topology (lumped, linearly distributed or branched) were simulated using the firing model. Such spreadsheet is instrumental in determining the blasting topology of any given detonator number and bus wire diameter or resistivity. Initial simulation results were interactively coupled back into making the serial protocol more robust during typical mining conditions.

Jan 1, 2006

By Robert B. Hopler

The Hercudet ? Nonelectric Delay Blasting Cap System has undergone significant changes since the last paper on the subject was presented at the 1978 S.E.E. Conference. The changes have been made to improve reliability of the blasting machine at low temperatures, and to improve efficiency and economy in usage in surface mining. The paper includes examples of the blast design process, details of use of the new in-hole connected cap, and delay patterns which have found use in quarrying and coal stripping.

Jan 1, 1980

By Thomas Barkley

Mining tradition holds that a parallel round underground can not be any deeper than it’s smallest face dimension. ln other words, a mine using a 12’ (3.7 m) high by 24’ (7.3 m) wide room and pillar mine, the deepest pull that can be achieved is plus or minus 12’ (3.7 m). After experience with decking of rounds in a 12’ (3.7 m) diameter shaft to achieve more than 12’ (3.7 m) advance per round, the concept of deepening the pull on horizontal parallel rounds seemed to be a feasible concept. Tests were conducted in a conventional room and pillar metal mine with a round size of 12’ (3.7 m) high by 24’(7.3 m) wide. Standard rounds were drilled with a 16’ (4.9 m) steel as parallel rounds to an average depth of 14.5’ (4.4 m). The average depth of pull on these rounds was about 13’ (4.0 m). Using the available drilling equipment, 20’ (6.1 m) drill steel was used to drill holes to an average depth of 18’ (5.5 m). Five rounds were drilled and shot with a resulting aven$e pull of 16.2’ (4.9 m) or 90 % of drilled depth. Rounds were designed with decked bum cuts to maximize depth of pull in the cut area An innovative method of de&mining drilling accuraq was used to estimate it’s effect on depth of pull in the rounds. This method used a standard automatic 35-mm camera and scaling to determine the average drill deviation for many of the holes in the rounds.

Jan 1, 2000

By Lawrence Mirabelli, Wayne Lidkea, Mario Paventi

On Januarv 1, 1996, INCO Limited, Tamrock OY, Dyno Nobel and CANMET formed a consortium for the development of robotic mining equipment called the Mining Automation Program (MAP). This project was a tive- [5] year research and development program that combined the talents of the above organizations to facilitate the development of mining equipment and systems for tele-remote mining. The year 2000 brings MAP to conclusion with actual production process trial testing of the developed prototype equipment and systems during the period between May and October. MAP consisted of multiple projects all of which are based on the communication system developed by INCO Mines Research and currently sold and marketed by Automated Mining Systems Limited. The main projects include the development of a positioning and navigation module (including a software mapping system that will be inherent to each piece of equipment), robotic systems for underground development and stoping operations, as well as software systems to support the use of this equipment. Included in the program was the establishment of a Research Mine, at INCO’s 175 orebody, Copper Cliff, Ontario, Canada. This facility allowed for the on-site collaboration between the companies and research organization in the design and testing of techniques and equipment to mine with TeleminingTM. Some of the prototype equipment developed through the program are: a tele-operated drilling jumbo, a tele-operated load-haul-and-dump [LHD] tram, a tele-operated production drill, a remote initiation system for programming and detonation of electronic detonators, and the development of a vatiable energy bulk emulsion explosive system, including loading equipment, to deliver the explosives to boreholes. Use of tele-operated and automated equipment for mining mandates a dramatic change in the traditional drill/blast/muck/support cycles in the underground mining process.

Jan 1, 2001

By Hung Tran, Denis Fleury, (Ken) Qian Liu

Pastefill technology has gained an increasing popularity over the past decade. The main advantages are: environmental performance (mainly in tailings disposal), low operation costs and ease of operation, as well as homogeneous properties. However, its weaker nature compared to other types of fill makes it more vulnerable to blast damage. In the last few years, Louvicourt Mine has experienced some cases of pastefill sloughage during the mining of secondary stopes. In order to reduce pastefill sloughage, some studies have been undertaken to investigate the causes and to find possible solutions by looking at stope design, extraction sequence, ground support and blast design. This paper presents the results of a blast damage study carried out at Louvicourt on the 860m level. The instrumentation included vibration monitors (using 6 sets of triaxial geophones grouted in the pastefill), a borehole camera to observe the damage in the pastefill, and a cavity monitoring system for three-dimensional surveys of the blasted stope. The test stope was mined out by four slot blasts and three mass blasts. Most of the damage was created by the mass blasts. It was found that the accumulation of ground vibration was mainly due to the low seismic velocities in the pastefill and the relatively tight delay between blastholes. In addition, there was a substantial difference between the critical PPV in the confined and unconfined pastefill. In practice, these findings have led to modifications of blast design to minimise the exposure time of pastefill walls to air. Such modifications included changes of blast sequence in secondary stopes and delay layout between heavily loaded blastholes. Over the paste two years, the implementation of new blast sequence has shown encouraging results in terms of reduced pastefill sloughage and dilution.

Jan 1, 2000

By Zheng Deming, Li Hongwei, Lei Zhan, Dai Chunyang

This paper introduces the application of a digital electronic detonator in the demolition blasting of largescale (LS) and long delay time (LDT) frame-shear structure buildings. The whole building to be demolished by blasting is an L-shaped frame shearing structure. Some parts of these buildings have a large length along the direction of collapse, so the detonation delay of the column is longer. To ensure the building is successfully blasted and demolished, a digital electronic detonator detonation system is adopted. In the design of the detonating network, full use is made of these characteristics of the digital electronic detonator, such as flexible installation, high precision of delay before blast, and dedicated testing equipment to check the reliability of the network. These advantages ensure the damage of the load-bearing structure is within the blasting gap and that the accuracy of the collapse time of the building, which not only guarantees the collapse effect of the building, but also provides strong technical support for improving the intrinsic safety of the blasting operation and the supervision of the flow direction of the detonation, these research be provide reference for the application of digital electronic detonators in similar projects.

Jan 1, 2019

By Mark S. Stagg, Steven V. Crum, Stephen A. Rholl

As part of its ongoing research concerning rock fragmentation by blasting, the Bureau of Mines has undertaken a series of test blasts where six cylinder-shaped pieces of granite rock were fragmented using high explosives. The tests were intended to: 1) Establish a dataset that could be used in the development and verification of theoretical models that simulate rock blasting and 2) To add to the fragmentation data currently being collected by Bureau researchers. The cylindrical geometry was chosen so that the fragmentation could be directly compared to two-dimensional computer simulations that assume an axisymmetric configuration as well as more sophisticated three-dimensional models. The granite cylinders, Carnelian granite and Charcoal granite, ranged in size from about 0.46 meters (18 inches) to 0.58 meters (23 inches) in diameter by 0.91 meters (36 inches) to 1.52 meters (60 inches) in length. Physical rock properties tests performed on the Charcoal granite cylinders indicated that the rocks did in fact have similar physical characteristics. PETN-based detonating cord and dynamite were used as the explosive charges and estimates of the values of some important physical properties are given. For the first five tests, the blasted rock was contained by a heavy rope mat suspended inside the Twin Cities Research Center's blasting shelter. The fragments from each of these shots were sorted and weighed to determine the corresponding fragment-size distributions. Even though different types of granite and cylinder sizes were used, similar fragment distributions were produced from shots that used a similar explosive, in this case the PETN-based detonating cord, and comparable burden-to-charge diameter ratios. Significantly coarser fragmentation was produced from a blast that used dynamite as the explosive charge. Fragment velocities were calculated using photographic data from the sixth test which was shot unrestrained in a quarry and filmed with high-speed cameras.

Jan 1, 1990

By Paul Worsey, Attila Szucs, Mark F. C. Schmidt

The use of water stemming with small explosive charges has been successfully developed at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Further study has been started to explore additional applications and uses for water stemming. Work has been focused in the areas of rock excavation and perimeter blasting techniques. This ongoing work is being conducted internally as graduate and undergraduate level research. A paper describing the general technique for use with boulder fragmentation was published in last year’s proceedings. The excavation work took place in the form of both small bench and trench shots while pre-split and trim shots comprised the perimeter-blasting portion. The excavation work was located in both the Roubidoux sandstone formation and the Jefferson City dolomite formation. Hole diameters ranged in size from 1.5” to 3” diameter and powder factors ranged from l/l 0 to l/3 of the conventional charge weight. The water was used to both couple the explosive charge with the surrounding borehole, as well as stemming. No other stemming material or products were used. The method of using water stemming in perimeter blasting was found to work well. However, when used for excavation purposes, adequate rock movement was not obtained. The rock was often split, but not fragmented. The airblast was surprisingly low, but the ground vibrations were excessive. This is not the case with trim shots, and therefore this method appears ideal for splitting purposes, especially in areas where people do not like to stem the tops of the holes, and where airblast and vibrations are of concern. Water coupling dramatically increases splitting and fracturing. However, fragmentation is not only fracturing but also the movement and swelling of the material. As the charge weights are reduced with this method, sufficient gas volume is not created to cause this necessary movement and swell, which is critical in rock excavation. This explains why its successful application was limited to perimeter blasting applications.

Jan 1, 2000

By Dale Preece, Vanessa Berg

This paper presents a two-pronged vulnerability analysis approach for treating minimally reinforced concrete (RC) structures subjected to explosive events. This work was motivated by a heightened interest in homeland protection involving both malevolent and accidental explosions and the need for assessment of critical facilities subjected to an explosive detonation. The first part of the analysis approach employs the commercial 3-D Eulerian-Lagrangian hydro-code AUTODYN, while the second part of the analysis employs Single-Degree-of-Freedom (SDOF) methods, each predicting the dynamic response of the minimally RC walls, slabs and columns to explosive loading. The concrete is treated with the newly developed RHT (Riedel, Hiermaier, Thoma) constitutive model, which accounts for failure mechanisms in brittle materials. Predictions from AUTODYN are verified using the equivalent SDOF reinforced concrete code, SPAn32, developed by the US Army Corp of Engineers and agreement between the results indicates a high level of accuracy in both methods of analysis, allowing for accurate predications of airblast-structure interactions and failure mechanisms.

Jan 1, 2004

By Leslie Taylor, R. Reed Skagga, William Gault

The ultimate aim of our overall task, of which the effort described in this paper is a part, is to be able to model the impulsive output of buried charges and the response of targets of interest. It is not practical or cost-effective to determine the response of all targets of interest to buried charges of all sizes by testing them. In order to have confidence in our models, however, they must be validated by a modest number of tests. A critical element in modeling the response of a target is the ability to model the loading function. The load a buried charge applies to a target above it when the charge detonates can be characterized in terms of the vertical impulse. The vertical impulse is a function of the size of the charge, its depth of burial, and the properties of the soil in which it is buried. The primary objective of the effort described in this paper is to determine the load a known charge places on a non-responding target so the data can be used to validate our models.

Jan 1, 2005

By W. Fourney

In the late 70’s and early 80’s in conjunction with other oil and gas well stimulation studies, personnel from the Dynamic Effects Lab performed model testing to demonstrate the effectiveness of utilizing an open section of borehole just before a plug. We called the process stem induced fracturing. The open section beneath the stem was used to increase the pressure magnitude and spread out the duration of the pressure pulse. This technique was later utilized to by Frank Chiapetta (1) in the fracture and fragmentation of rock in quarry blasting situations. He called his technique air deck blasting. In fact, Frank found that the Russians had previously discovered the same technique. There is currently interest in utilizing air deck blasting with an open section of hole beneath the explosive at the bottom of the bore hole to better remove the toe in a fragmentation shot. This paper reviews the development of stem induced fracturing and then describes a series of model tests conducted to measure borehole pressure at points along a borehole when an explosive charge is detonated at the midpoint of the borehole. Tests were conducted in both stiff boreholes (aluminum) and less rigid boreholes (PMMA-Plexiglas). Pressure time profiles were measured at the charge site, midway between the charge and the bottom of the hole, at the stemming at the top of the borehole, and at the bottom of the borehole. Crack initiation sites and crack propagation were also determined in the PMMA models. Some high speed pictures were taken of the event in the PMMA.

Jan 1, 2006

By Miie Shields, Ed Billington

Trail blasters for the National Park Service (NPS) live and work in remote mountain terrain throughout the western states, where any support or resupply may be sporadic and ditlicult and mountain weather affects every activity. Mechanical “aids” are the pick, shovel, rock-bar, wheelbarrow, and a Pionjar or Cobra dritl. The blaster is usually faced with an extraordinary range of work, t?om delay blasts in weathered rock using driiole depths of 18” (46cm) to as little as 4” (1 Ocm), through reducing boulders and talus fields to useable tread, blasting stumps, snags and log-jams, to the explosive disintegration and casting of animal czcasses. One day he/she might provide a 500cf (14 cu meter) anchor excavation for a suspension bridge, the next day directionally fall 60” (1.5m) diameter snags in a camp area, and the following day blast a 3-foot-wide (1 meter) tread bench across a steep bedrock slope. To be effective, the blaster must design each and every blast around desired end result, crew and public safety, maximizing effective use of limited quantities of explosive, and the minimnation of environmental effects. Since almost all drillhole blasting occurs in the weathered zone of the rock, blasting is more the art than the science of judging rock density, hardness, cohesion and prefracturing, and selecting explosives, drill and delay patterns, and loading techniques responsive to those conditions. For these reasons the NPS issues its own Blaster’s License, with a basic requirement of at least 40 hours of NPS blaster training and 3 years of supervised Blaster in-Training experience. The focus of this pre-license requirement is on safety and using explosives as a precision tool, versus just “blowing things up”.

Jan 1, 2002

By Michael Louis, Charles Dowding

Concern over construction vibration-induced cracking has led to development of a new approach to vibration monitoring called autonomous crack measurement (ACM) and illustrated in Figure 1. This paper describes the concept as well as sensor performance in the first test house fitted an ACM system. Response of three cracks in this concrete masonry unit (CMU) house was measured as part of the system verification. ACM employs a single sensor that measures both weather-induced micrometer changes in crack width and those produced by habitation and ground motioninduced vibration. This comparison is displayed in real time via the Internet without human interaction. Graphic display through the Internet provides a new pathway for communication with the public. Such visual comparison of changes in crack width provides a simple alternative to the present system of comparison of measured and allowable vibration time histories. Measurements reported herein show that weatherinduced response of cracks is greater than that caused by presently allowable construction-induced vibration.

Jan 1, 2003

By Richard Mainiero, James H. Rowland III

For many years there have been small scale tests available for evaluating the toxic fumes production by capsensitive explosives (DOT Class 1. l), but these could not be used with blasting agents due to the large charge sizes and heavy confinement required for proper detonation. Considering the extensive use of blasting agents in construction and mining, there is a need to determine the quantities of toxic ti,tmes generated by blasting agents. At the International Society of Explosive Engineers Twenty Third Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique in 1997, the authors reported on a facility for detonating large (4.54 kg), confined blasting agent charges in a controlled volume that had been constructed at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Pittsburgh Research Lab’s Experimental Mine. Since 1997, this facility has been used to collect data on toxic fumes produced by the detonation of various ammonium nitrate/fuel oil (ANFO) mixtures and several cap-sensitive explosives. ANFO composition ranging from 1 to 10 percent (pet) tieI oil have been studied. As expected from previous studies, with an increase in fuel oil content the carbon monoxide production increases, while nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide production decrease. The detonation velocity varies from 3,000 to 4,000 m/set for the 1 to 10 pet range of fuel oil content, suggesting that ANFO mixes with improper fuel oil content may appear to detonate properly, while their fume production differs significantly from optimum. The study also considers such factors as degree of confinement, water contamination, and aluminum content on blasting agent fume production. Results indicate that water contamination of the ANFO has little effect on carbon monoxide production, but causes significant increase in nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide production. Decreasing confinement from Schedule 80 steel pipe to 0.4~mm thick sheet metal also has little effect on carbon monoxide production, but significantly increases nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide production. Adding 5 and 10 pet aluminum to the ANFO had no clear effect on carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, or nitrogen dioxide production.

Jan 1, 2000

By Cristian Rodriquez, Fernando Fernandez, Rodrigo Fuentealba, Tom BoBo, Maria Rocha, John Kemeny

This paper describes a case study that was conducted at a new mine in South America. This mine has significant geologic variations that will result in different distributions of hard and soft ore being mined at different periods of time over the mine life. A study was conducted to determine the optimum blast design that will meet the mill throughput requirement of 95,000 tonnes (104,720 tons) per day for the first 10 years of the mine life. As part of this study, field rock mass characterization and laboratory tests were conducted. This includes standard rock mechanics tests as well as rock breakage tests used in mill simulations. The geology of the ore body was broken up into four Geologic Units, and statistical variations in the properties were determined for each unit. Using this data along with the data on the occurrence of the different geologic units over time, simulations were made of the run-of-mine (ROM) fragmentation due to different blast designs, and these results were used in simulating the resulting throughput after crushing and grinding. Four blast designs were considered with powder factors of 0.44, 0.54, 0.64 and 0.94 kg/t. The results of this study show that determining the proper blast design is important in ensuring that the mill throughput requirement will be met over the mine life.

Jan 1, 2015

By Cathy Aimone-Martin, Kristin Dunlap Kolden

Blasting was conducted for the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) in the Columbia River near Saint Helens, Oregon during 2009 and 2010 to deepen the navigation channel as a final phase of a dredging project to accommodate larger container ships. The Columbia River Channel Improvement Project (CRCI) required 4 months to blast and dredge 300,000 yd3 (229,366 m3) of basalt from the bottom of the channel to allow Post-Panamax vessels with drafts up to 50 ft (15.2 m) access to the Ports along the River. Explosives charges were limited to 90 lbs (40.8 kg) per delay for the protection of fish and marine life in the area. A fish mortality study and marine mammal monitoring program was also required by the Corps. Underwater overpressure monitoring was required for each blast and peak overpressures measured 10 ft (3.1 m) above the river bottom 140 ft (42.7 m) from the closest blast hole were not to exceed 70 psi (483 kPa) with a cautionary level of 40 psi (276 kPa). Specifications required sampling rates of 500k S/s and PCB Peizotronics tourmaline pressure sensors. The Corps granted permission to co-locate additional ceramic-type sensors at different sampling rates to design redundant monitoring systems 140 and 300 ft (42.7 and 91.4 m) from blasting and develop a site-specific overpressure attenuation model for the project. This paper presents the correlations of overpressure with cube-root scaled distance factors, a comparison of measurements using three different pressure sensor systems, and a discussion of blast design influence on overpressure measurements.

Jan 1, 2014

By Lon Santis

This paper describes several applications of quantitative risk assessment in the management of commercial explosives operations. The Institute of Makers of Explosives’ (IME) quantitative risk assessment software modeling program IMESAFR was used for this analysis. Modeled activities include the unloading of a ship at port, locating a safe haven, and dealing with encroachment on a manufacturing facility. The layout of actual explosives sites were used for the analysis. The risk of fatality is analyzed and shown it can be used to make informed operational decisions for each activity. A study of the risks to individuals from activities involving commercial explosives compared to individual risks from other daily activities or exposures is also presented.

Jan 1, 2008