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By Stacy Loizeaux

The Beirut Hilton Hotel, which was built in 1975, but never occupied, was imploded on Sunday, July 14, 2002 by Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) of Phoenix, Maryland and their client, Optimal Engineering Consulting & Contracting, SARL, (OECC) of Antelias, Lebanon to make room for a new hotel. Twenty-seven years ago, just days before the grand opening, the Hilton Hotel became the site of fighting in Lebanon’s Civil War. Christian and Muslim militiamen fought room to room for control of the building and other nearby hotels. The Hilton, two other major hotels and other high-rise buildings were ravaged by the fighting. The building was one of the three major hotels badly damaged, but not rebuilt, in Lebanon. Located in the City Center, the Hilton stood out in a major redevelopment area which, in recent years, had erased the scars of the 15 year long Civil Wa r.

Jan 1, 2003

By James A. Bachmann, Christopher J. Gray

On December 26, 1994, at 1:00 am, Santa Fe Pacific Gold's Twin Creeks Mine experienced a major highwall failure involving over 2.5 million tons. The resulting effects of this slide were thousands of ounces of gold that were now deferred and an unstable wall above which made mining the slough material unsafe.

Jan 1, 1996

By Paul Downing

Identity Theft Outline • What Are MY Chances??? • Types Of Thefts • Sources Of Theft Info • Stolen Identity vs. Background Checks • Information/Data Safeguards • Corporate Data Handling • Reclaiming Your Identity • Monitoring Your Identity

Jan 1, 2006

By D T. Froedge

With successive generations of the Iso-Seismic System, we are acquiring more and more information about the actual behavior of blast induced ground, and airborne vibration, as it propagates through the environment. Some of the original “truths” that have been long accepted may have to be \revised.

Jan 1, 1995

By Tom Snyder, John Brulia

Part 4 is the final article by the authors on hazardous materials (HM)transportation safety and compliance for U.S. shippers and carriers who offer and transport commercial explosives in commerce on public highways. This article covers hazardous materials (HM) cargo segregation and securement of non-bulk packaged explosives.

Jan 1, 2015

By James Rowland, Marcia Harris, Richard Mainiero, Michael Sapko

All explosive materials produce a cloud of reaction products, the most toxic of which is nitrogen dioxide (NO2). In the study reported here, 4.5-kg (10-lb) charges of blasting agent confined in either thin-wall 10-cm (4-in) diameter galvanized pipe or 10-cm (4-in) schedule 80 seamless steel pipe were detonated in a closed chamber. The detonation gases were analyzed for NO2, nitric oxide (NO), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), and methane (CH4). Data were evaluated to determine the kinetics of the oxidation of NO to NO2. Analysis revealed that the only mechanism for NO loss for the conditions existing in the chamber was the reaction 2NO + O2 6 2 NO2. The rate constant was 2.08 ?? 10-38 cm6 molecules-2 sec-1 for the rate equation -??d [NO]/dt = K ?? [NO]2 ?? [O2] for NO concentrations up to 100 ppm. The rate constant is in agreement with that recommended by Baulch, Drysdale, and Horne (1973).

Jan 1, 2006

By Guillermo Silva, P. Katsabanis

The conventional approach to design wall control blasts relies on the borehole pressure as the most important explosive parameter. Borehole pressure is intimately linked to explosion pressure, which in turn is related to the detonation pressure of the explosive. For fully coupled charges, the borehole pressure is equated to the explosion pressure, while for decoupled and decked charges its value is typically calculated under the assumption that the explosion products behave like an ideal gas when they expand into the volume of the hole.

Jan 1, 2003

By D. Pickering, R. Wharton

The deadline for meeting legal requirements relating to the sale of explosives in the European Union was 1 January 2003. The paper examines the range of materials that have already been certified by the different Explosives Notified Bodies as well as recent national and European Commission decisions relating to this work. The implications of enlargement of the European Union are also discussed as is the future role of the Great Britain Explosives Notified Body in certification and assessment.

Jan 1, 2003

By K B. Holm

This paper deals with the advances made at Syferfontein Colliery in the calculation and control of dragline methodology. The high capital outlay and operating cost of a dragline necessitates strict control of all aspects of the dragline operation. Before purchasing a dragline, a complete evaluation of all the parameters that can affect the viability, now and in the future, of the dragline operation needs to be completed. Such parameters as thickness of burden, material properties (swell), “castability”, pit width and pit length, etc. need to be considered.

Jan 1, 1994

By J Deen, P Sterk, W Forsyth

Homestake Mining Company has made a firm commitment to develop a functional and cost effective perimeter blasting program. The goal of the program is to develop smooth, sound walls in all development ends. A good perimeter blasting method will improve safety, reduce waste rock handling, allow easier support installation and reduce scaling time. All the benefits will contribute to an overall reduction in total development costs.

Jan 1, 1997

By Young-Dong Cho, Yonghun Jong, Dong-See Shim, Seokwon Jeon, Chung-In Lee

The most important operation in the tunnel blasting procedure is to create an opening in the face in order to develop more free surface in the rock mass. This operation is highly dependent on the cut holes. In general, the burn-cut or V-cut is commonly adopted to blast the cut section. But, these traditional methods often raise problems. There are instances (a) that the actual advance is considerably less than the designed advance depending on the rock mass, (b) that they cannot sometimes enlarge the free surface efficiently and (c) that the blast vibration resulted from the cut blast exceeds the allowable vibration level. In order to resolve the problems, many different kinds of the cut blast can be considered.

Jan 1, 2005

By Bobby Dupree

I remember a big problem with a seismograph in the winter two years ago. In response to a citizen’s complaint I placed a transducer near the corner of a two-story home. It was a pretty nice day for the winter months, the people were pleasant, and I had no problems digging a hole to place the transducer.

Jan 1, 2004

By J Lyall Workman, Peter N. Calder

"Large hole rotary drilling is one of the most common methods of producing blastholes in open pitmining. Large hole drilling generally refers to diameters from 9 to 17 inch (229 to 432 mm), however aconsiderable amount of rotary drilling is done in diameters from. 6% to 9 inch (165 to 229 mm). Thesesmaller diameters are especially prevalent in gold mining and quarrying."

Jan 1, 1996

By Yang Jun, Qu Mei, Zheng Yao-wu, Chi Li-yuan

Due to the necessity of the prediction of blasting seismic effect around strip mine bench blasting area, the paper provides a method to predict the blasting seismic effect by employing the superposition of seed waveform at different monitoring points. The method assumes that blasting vibration waveform per hole is similar to seed waveform at monitoring point. Therefore seismic wave consists of the superposition of the waves from all of blast holes. Firstly, via sensors multiple seed waveforms can be achieved at different distances from signature hole. Then, by using the given dose and the distance, the vibration waveform of a certain blast hole can be calculated by the corresponding seed waveforms. Finally, the initiation delay time interval per hole is added to the propagation time to the predicting point. The predictive waveform at the whole blasting area can be obtained by superimposing all of the single waveforms. Considering the vibration waveform of a single blast hole changes greatly with the distance, under different distances condition the seed wave employed to superimpose is achieved from the similar distance. The experiments demonstrate that based on the method the predictive vibration waveform and spectrum are basically consistent with monitoring results around near-field blast. Compared with single seed wave method, the superposition method of multiple seed wave is more reliable to predict the duration of blasting vibration, the peak particle velocity, dominant frequency and frequency distribution.

Jan 1, 2015

By Mark William Withey

"Blasting safety in surface mining is a necessary industrial goal. Proper techniques and disciplinesexercised during the blasting process enhance the probability of achieving that goal.The blasting process is generally a series of repetitive steps performed by all blasting technicians.Because habits formed during this process influence safety, production and cost, proper habitsbecome compulsory."

Jan 1, 1995

By Lon Santis

In 1923, Ralph Assheton compiled a report for the Institute of Makers of Explosives (IME) on accidental explosions in manufacturing plants. The report chronicles the type and amount of explosive involved in the event and the effects and distances to nearby buildings and workers for over 100 events from 1880 to 1916. Apparently, this report was never published but served as the origin of the IME’s first intra-plant distance table published in Pamphlet No. 3 in 1926. The effort was a parallel effort to the IME’s development of the American Table of Distances. The intra-plant distance table has never been changed by the IME and follows the US Department of Defense (DoD) standard very closely. This paper freshly compiles the data from the 1923 report and analyzes it with modern methods not generally available in 1923. Interestingly, the analysis indicates that the original intra-plant distance tables were established primarily to protect workers from serious injury and that preventing propagation was a side benefit. The data shows that a strong relationship exists between the probability of injury and the traditional K-factor. The data indicate that people in the open are better protected than those inside structures and that barricades reduce risk close to an event. Individuals at the intra-plant distance had a 95 percent chance of receiving no worse than a minor injury. A comparison of the data to explosive event consequence models indicate the models are overly conservative in regards to risk inside inhabited building distances.

Jan 1, 2010

By Jack Elorenta

We often hear that, "Blasting was an art, but now blasting is now a science". 'Scientific' blasting implies that we have quantified and reproducible measurements of the feedstock and product of the blasting process. However, the industry's reluctance to adopt two key technologies, drill monitoring and optical size analyzers, sheds doubt on the claims of scientific blasting.

Jan 1, 2003

By Junya Tokita

In Japan, packaged explosives have traditionally been used as the most common explosive for tunneling. Recently, some blasting systems such as ANFO with a kettle loader and emulsion explosives with a pump loader have been trialed in order to improve safety and efficiency of the charging process. There are issues with these systems relative to the Japanese market. ANFO dissolves in water easily, and generates ammonia gas when it contacts with concrete. Emulsion explosives need costly pump ing unit s, and there is a need to control residuals in the pump unit. Additionally, there are obstacles by Japanese law to site mixing of emulsion explosives.

Jan 1, 2005

By Peter Reinders, Dirk Hummel

This paper describes a newly developed Surface Remote Blasting System (SURBS) for electronic detonators, which is currently being introduced into surface blasting applications. The rationale for developing the SURBS was to meet key needs of mine operations, such as minimizing the shutdown time and the capability to conveniently initiate blasts in difficult terrain from a safe distance. Increased distance from the blast site, combined with a good overview of the site enables maximum safety during blasting. The system also removes the inconvenience of running long firing cables. The SURBS consists of the field-proven detonator and equipment technology of an existing electronic detonator system, a Surface Remote Blasting Box and a Surface Remote Blaster. The Surface Remote Blaster is the Master unit and controls the Remote Blasting Box via encrypted radio communication using a sophisticated safety technology, which guarantees that the highest safety standards are maintained.

Jan 1, 2005

By Mats Keisu, Bengt Niklasson

The Sofia project has increased the level of knowledge and technique within tunnelling, drifting and contour blasting.

Jan 1, 1992