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By Charles L. Greening

MARTIN MARIETTA CEMENT at Martinsburg, West Virginia, has been and presently is engaged in coupling present open pit with old underground workings. Various drilling and blasting techniques have been introduced in an endeavor to achieve optimum results. This paper will relate to three roof shots at Martinsburg, one of which realized a controlled blast of 248,000 tons of material.

Jan 1, 1982

By Kevin Cole, Dennis A. Clark, F William Laslow

Since 1976, the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago, (MSDGC), has commissioned the excavation of a tunnel system in the Chicago area, hundreds of feet below the surface in solid limestone. This paper outlines the blasting patterns, explosive selections, and monitoring techniques used to assure a satisfactory job completion, following the specifications.

Jan 1, 1982

By W. J. Birch, R. Farnfield, G. D. Rangel-Sharp

It is widely recognised that complaints from members of the public relating to blasting operations are related to both ground vibration and air overpressure. It is also known that a complaint is more likely to be generated if the person is inside of a structure at the time of the blast. Reports relating to such complaints often refer to ‘noise’ inside the structure with terms like ‘rattling’ commonly being employed. Such acoustic response is widely perceived within the blasting industry to be directly related to high levels of air overpressure although there appears to have been very little research carried out specifically related to this effect.

Jan 1, 2007

By W. J. Birch, R. Farnfield

All shock-tube based initiation systems have a time lag relating to the propagation velocity of the shock-tube itself. This paper examines the exploitation of this inherent time lag to achieve delay blasting with accuracies approaching that achievable with electronic systems albeit over a much shorter delay range. The system employed consists of a combination of standard shock-tube, plain detonators and various shock-tube branching components. The accuracy of the complete system depends on the scatter in delay time induced by each component. In order to quantify this scatter a series of trials were undertaken to determine the variability for each component. These trials are described along with a detail statistical summary of the data recorded.

Jan 1, 2009

By Zuhair Ibrahim, Dan Tillema, Ali Reza

This paper details the investigation of a fatal explosion that occurred on April 8, 2011 at a magazine used to store fireworks in Waikele, HI. The fireworks had been confiscated by the Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement after they were informed that a container shipped to the United States contained illegal fireworks. Four groups of cardboard cartons that were marked as 1.4G (consumer fireworks) were determined to be consistent with the more explosive 1.3G type, commercial display fireworks. The subcontractor retained to destroy these fireworks stored the shipment in the subject magazine and was in the process of disassembling them on the day the explosion occurred.

Jan 1, 2014

By R E. Langston, S M. Gazioglu

A preconstruction inventory program was conducted to determine the existing conditions of residential, non-residential and all other structures within 2,000 feet of the blasting limits for a highway excavation site in Asheville, North Carolina. Prior to major production blasting, eleven test blasts were detonated to establish site specific propagation parameters in order to develop contours of maximum allowable explosive charge weights per delay. The method of scaling distance by the square root of charge weight per delay was utilized in developing the contours of allowable charge weights. The charge weight contours were revised during blasting operations as additional vibration data became available. The effects of blast induced vibrations on a nearby water storage reservoir, a nearby vehicular tunnel and other adjacent residential and non-residential structures were observed and monitored over a period of two years of blasting operations.

Jan 1, 1980

By Dadan Munawar, Benny Gunawan

Blasting at Sebesi in Central Tutupan Pit area in South Kalimantan, Indonesia is planned to be using emulsion, where used oil makes up 50% of the total emulsion fuel. The significant amount of used oil from various mining operation units had been of deep concern since it might be reused to implement environmental programs by substituting 50% of fuel with used oil in emulsion, thus decreasing fuel consumption and increasing efficiency by reducing fuel cost. Used oil must pass laboratory test to meet the Indonesian National Standards (SNI) No. 7642:2010 of used oil specification. Other considerations include the location which is adjacent to the mine office facilities with a radius of <1,750 meters (5,741 feet). Thus, appropriate methods must be performed to meet the SNI No. 7571:2010 of vibration threshold in order to implement safe blasting technique and prevent potential damage.

Jan 1, 2015

By Chuck Kliche, Bill Clements

This project involved the removal of the top of an old water supply reservoir tank for the City of Lead, SD by explosives. The general contract called for the removal of the concrete top without damaging the sides or floor of the reservoir. The option of a rock hammer was eliminated, due to the possibility of an unpredictable collapse damaging the sides or floor of the reservoir. Different blasting options were discussed between the primary contractor and the blasting contractor, along with the pros and cons of each. The primary contractor settled on the option of drilling the structure for blasting versus using shaped charges

Jan 1, 2007

By Dal Sun Kim, Michael K. McCarter

"Comminution (crushing and grinding) of rock materials is energy-intensive and expensive. Mucheffort has been directed to improve the efficiency of conventional milling practice, but relatively littleattention has been given to the potential benefits of blast-induced damage on comminution processes. To help assess this effect, research has been conducted at the IRECO Laboratory and the Generic Center for Comminution at the University of Utah. The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of shockinduced “crack-like” damage on rock properties and subsequent breakage efficiency for three petrologically different rock materials under laboratory conditions. In order to evaluate the effect of shockinduced damage, a quantitative measure of rock damage is needed. For this purpose, a scalar variable (0) is proposed."

Jan 1, 1993

By J. Meissner

In this paper vibratory crack response is compared to that produced by volumetric changes in foundation soils induced by natural events. These natural phenomena include changes in the water table, changes in soil moisture, and formation of ice lenses to name a few. Previous papers have compared vibratory responses of cracks to atmospheric effects such as those produced by the passage of weather fronts and daily changes in temperature and humidity. Periodicity of these atmospheric effects is on the order of a day to half a dozen days. Thus it is possible to observe atmospheric effects with measurement over a period of weeks to several months. On the other hand, crack response produced by volumetric changes in foundation soils occurs over a period of many months and/or may be seasonal in nature if not longer in the case of drought. Thus its measurement requires long periods of observation (many months to significant fractions of a year) or observation during critical seasons. Since it occurs over long periods of time, its observation may be obscured by climatologically induced crack response. These soil volume changes are compared with climatic data to describe the correlative nature of crack response in time with the soil volume change phenomena and likely climatic causes.

Jan 1, 2009

By R. Franfield, W. J. Birch, L. Bermingham

Previous researchers have put forward two different theories as to the origin of air overpressure from quarry blasting. In 1980, Siskind et al postulated that the initial face movement gave rise to the displacement of air and that this resulted in the air overpressure pulse. However in 1990 McKenzie et al carried out research that indicated that the air overpressure pulse came into being as consequence of the shock wave created by the detention of the explosive charge in a blast hole, rapidly propagating through the rock and then impacting on the quarry face.

Jan 1, 2013

By Conny Postnpaok, Mark E. Hammele

"A major problem that has continued to plague the surface oil industry is blast induced damage to the coal seam. Atlas Powder Company has addressed this situation through several years of field research in full-scale production environments. Many operations across the United States havebeen evaluated ."

Jan 1, 1989

By Travis Davidsavor, Stanley: Dong Vitton

Concrete is a common construction material used throughout the world, and with increasing demand of fast-track construction, blasting and concrete casting are occurring simultaneously at many sites where rock is being excavated for concrete placement. However, there has been significant disagreement in the construction industry as to what intensity of shock vibrations green, or fresh concrete can tolerate. Peak particle velocities are often arbitrarily chosen, or are simply based on materials such as plaster and drywall that have been more thoroughly studied in relation to damage. Previous research on green concrete has used the concrete’s static strength subjected to shockwaves at different ages as the primary damage criteria. In addition, the static strength tests have been based on curing time. However, changes in temperature or humidity can dramatically alter the hydration rate, which affects strength development of different cements. To account for temperature changes and humidity the concept of concrete maturity is commonly used and allows the researcher to see where the concrete was in terms of hydration progress. In general, static testing determines the failure stress that the concrete’s macrostructure can handle, and often failure occurs in the natural materials first or along large defects in casting techniques. Dynamic testing or high strain rate testing, on the other hand, loads materials at such a high rate that larger defects do not have time to react and instead the microstructure is more highly stressed leading to higher strength and stiffness values. This is known as the material’s strain rate sensitivity. Since dynamic testing better tests the microstructural strength, it is believed that it may provide a better way to assess damage to green concrete. Testing includes both static and dynamic compression as well as static and dynamic splitting tensile strength to assess whether damaged has occurred to the concrete. No significant statistical evidence was discovered that damage to the concrete occurred at five different “green” maturities from peak resultant velocities ranging from 10.66 in/s (271mm/s) to 4.40 in/s (112 mm/s) with average intensity of 6.7 in/s (170mm/s).

Jan 1, 2003

By Joshua Hoffman, Braden Lusk, Perry Kyle

With the advent of any new technology comes the necessity of fully understanding the mechanics of that technology. The Shock Tunnel is one such technology that provides a cost effective means of simulating large-scale explosions while requiring a fraction of the explosive and space. Although the technique is known and practiced, the dynamics and mechanics of this technology has yet to be fully understood. A relationship between the energy potential of a given explosive and the energy realized at a set of distances was determined. This data was then compared to the energies realized from the same explosive when utilized in conjunction with a shock tunnel. A relationship between potential and realized energy outputs from explosive based shock tunnels exists and the understanding of this relationship would allow all for predictions to be made to forecast a specific amount of explosive required to produce a desired energy output. This energy output should then be relatable to peak pressures produced via the shock tunnel. Two shock tunnels are currently accessible for this study, the first under the direction of the University of Kentucky, and a second under the direction of the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The two shock tunnels differ in dimensions but share common construction materials. Energy realized from a shock tunnel is hypothesized to be a function of the shock tunnel’s dimensions. This study explores how different geometries affect the shock tunnel’s performance; this exploration is broken down into three phases. Phase 1: Open arena testing in which theoretical energies produced by the detonation of small (<1.0 kg) charges are compared to actual experimental values. Phase 2: Shock Tunnel testing in which realized energies are experimentally recorded for the UK shock tunnel. Phase 3: Analysis of the data to lay down the ground work for producing a pressure-forecasting tool given shock tunnel dimensions and explosive characteristics with the possible detection of avenues for optimization of shock tunnels.

Jan 1, 2009

By Mark A. Rugen

It may be difficult to imagine but small engineering companies do exist, even in relatively large cities like San Antonio. Due to the limited capital available for the purchase or use of equipment such as computers, many times the small company must evaluate a blast damage claim by limited means. This paper will discuss how a relatively small company has managed to become the leading blast damage experts in an area without the use of computers or sophisticated equipment. It will be shown that a single individual in a company who is familiar with vibration theory, local soil conditions and who does not mind spending long hours with a calculator and reference books can satisfy both the insuranc e adjuster or attorney, and the homeowner concerning the claim. Several examples will be given which show the typical flow of work and the ultimate outcome. This paper will focus on the special problems encountered by a small firm and how these can be overcome, and the unique interaction of a small engineering firm with both the insurance adjuster/attorney and the homowner that can lead to an equitable settlement of the claim.

Jan 1, 1983

By Eduardo Lozano, Vilem Petr

This study demonstrates the ability of high-order, shock-capturing methods to simulate detonation wave propagation in right circular cylinders of non-ideal explosives. 2-D axisymmetric, reactive Euler equations were solved for the detonation of the highly non-ideal explosive ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (ANFO) using a simple pressure-dependent rate law and perfect gas equation of state. The fractional step method was applied to the convection and reaction operators using a 2nd-order Strang splitting. The flow solver consisted of a finite difference scheme where the flux is reconstructed by a modified fifth-order weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO5-Z) with local characteristic decomposition and local Lax-Friedrichs (LLF) flux splitting. Time integration was performed by a third order total variation diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta time discretization method, also known as the strong stability preserving (SSP) method

Jan 1, 2019

By David Nemir, Jan Beck

A challenge in materials science is the production of a bulk solid material from a powder precursor. One solution is to use shockwave consolidation whereby a ductile tube is loaded with the powder of interest and then surrounded by an explosive. A detonator at the top of the explosive column initiates a symmetrical high-pressure pulse that moves inward and down the tube, causing the tube to deform and the interior powders to consolidate into a dense, well bonded bulk material.

Jan 1, 2016

By Rob Farnfield, Mark Pegden

Old Cliffe Hill quarry produces between 4 and 5 million tonnes of crushed granite per year and is located in the county of Leicestershire in the East Midlands region of England. Blasting is carried out with bulk emulsion explosives in combination with either shock-tube or electronic detonators.

Jan 1, 2010

By Seokbin Lim

According to published literature, the equation of motion of linear shaped charges (LSCs) has been investigated as early as the 1960s in a few research organizations. However, due to the comparatively low penetration performance, the amount of research has not been extensive, and the use of this device is quite limited in very specialized applications. Traditionally, the equation of motion of an LSCs’ liner shares the same basis as conical shaped charges (CSCs) because they are under the same functional category and generally have similar geometric configuration. However, the nature of LSCs is not quite similar with that of CSCs due to multiple reasons, and they required a new set of equations to properly address their performance. In this paper, we reviewed different sets of approaches in describing the liner collapse behavior of LSCs mostly based on the author’s contributions.

Jan 1, 2014

By Manuel Villalobos Calderón

This paper presents the Enaex group approach to addressing the blasting challenges and outlines the solutions created. Aspects such as rock mass damage occurrence as a function of blast vibration frequency content has been studied, as well as the development of blasting methodologies for guaranteeing the full 100% extraction of all infrastructure blasts, including the all-important drawbell volumes. The development of such infrastructure volumes in one single event using electronic detonators and the associated achievement of ambitious productivity goals, are described as a critical part of the successful construction of one of the most ambitious UG projects currently present on the world.

Feb 1, 2020