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By Marcia Harris, Richard Mainiero

The New York State Department of Transportation recently commenced highway widening and drainage improvement projects in Clarence and Amherst, NY. Drainage improvements including the installation of storm sewer lines required excavation to a depth of 2.5 m (8.2 ft). In September 2002, NYSDOT stopped further blasting when 800 ppm CO was detected in the basement of a house near the blasting site. At the insistence of NYSDOT, the general contractor developed a new blast plan with the assistance of an environmental consultant. The plan provided for the installation of multi-gas monitors in buildings of special concern and/or with basements and residential type CO monitors in all other buildings within 100m (330 ft) of the blast. The multi-gas monitors would be remotely monitored. The plan provided action levels which would ensure public safety. The blast design was also modified to allow for better venting of CO. Blasts were limited to 20 ft lengths. The overburden was to be removed from the rock and blasting mats put in place to prevent flyrock. Approximately twenty feet of trench adjacent to the blast was left open to allow ground movement and gas release. The use of CO monitors was effective to alert occupants of a building to the presence of CO. The most effective appeared to be the residential type CO alarms with digital readouts. They were simple and easy to use and allowed the public to participate in the process. False alarms were repeatedly received with the more sophisticated instrumentation. Residential type CO monitors are preferable to warn people near blast sites. More sophisticated instrumentation should be avoided unless personnel are experienced in its use. A general overview of the blasting and monitoring is presented and discussed. The use and effectiveness of residential type CO monitors and multi-gas monitors are discussed.

Jan 1, 2004

By Stephen H. Chung

Direct visualization of rock movement during blasting is an important key to understanding the blasting process, as well as optimizing blast designs and explosives performance. To achieve this, a digital camera system (HSIS-500) has been built. It is a custom made high speed solid-state camera employing an advanced charge coupled device (CCD) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) technologies. It handles like a regular video camera but requires no film or tape as the image is recorded in digital form on memory chips and transferred to the system hard disk for storage. The system consists of two components: the camera body and hardware, and the image processing unit.

Jan 1, 1996

By Steve Dillingham

Blasting crews, explosive product drivers, drillers, blasters, supervisors, and salespeople all arrive daily at customer blast sites in vehicles of every type whether passenger cars, pickup trucks, or bulk trucks. The majority of these vehicles are company owned and re p re s e n t a substantial investment and risk for the company. That may explain why the costs resulting from blasting incidents is often surpassed by those involving motor vehicle accidents.

Jan 1, 2003

By Alain Blanchier, Pascal Bernasconi

Blasting operations took place on Channel coast NW of France to extend Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant (EPR new generation). The closest operating reactor building was monitored by a 24 remote vibrations transducers network to fulfil, on one hand, the severe environment constraints and satisfy high degree of productivity required by the project, on the other hand. Although these requirements usually are incompatible, this challenge compelled to introduce a seismic modelling technique to optimize blast designs using electronic initiating system. The “Hybrid Seismic Modelling” (MSH) uses blastholes signatures (seismic vibrations records) which are greatly dependent on geology and alteration of rock mass, explosives, charge geometry, blast configuration, and the final excavation shape. In order to respect severe vibrations limits, excavation layout was divided into areas with specific blasting modules - type and number of charges, single charge, initiating sequence. Thanks to this technique, it has been possible to reach lowest blasts vibrations levels and a better productivity compared to classical blasting operation at the same location in the past. After the modelling method presentation - principle and use precautions, technical improvements are reported.

Jan 1, 2008

By Greg Quinn

After a long week of work in Colorado Springs this past July, I was looking forward to flying home to start a long anticipated family vacation. As I grabbed my seat on the plane, a man sitting next to me innocently inquired, to the row as a whole and not to me in particular, “I wonder what the weather will be like in Phoenix”? To most people, this is a common (maybe the most common) topic of casual conversation. To a meteorologist that just dealt with six thunderstorm delays at a major golf event over 4 days, well, lets just say the smirk on my face said it all. After giving my flight mate a detailed forecast and a short explanation on why I would know such information, I sensed, correctly, the inevitable follow up question was coming. “Why would you need a meteorologist at a golf tournament?”

Jan 1, 2012

By S. Huang, K. Xia

The down-stream size reduction processes such as crushing, grinding and milling, represent major expenditure of energy. The present study is aimed at linking the fragmentation characteristics of the rock feed in a crusher with the physical and mechanical properties of the rock and the energy expended in the process. This is done through a modified Hopkinson Pressure bar apparatus, where both the impact velocity and energy input can be carefully controlled. A single layer of rock particles of very narrow feed size range (9 mm - 12 mm) and occupying a fixed volume in a chamber is impacted by means of a striker. The resulting fragment size distribution is determined for two different rock types (e.g. a granite and a limestone), involving single and multiple impacts, with all other experimental parameters remaining constant. The progressive reduction in overall product size and detailed fragment size distribution curves are obtained through sieve analysis, for specified number of impacts. The resulting fragment size distribution is analyzed in the light two distribution functions, Rosin-Rammler and Swebrec.

Jan 1, 2015

By Tianrui Xu, Chaohong Liu, Bangqing Ding

The authors were responsible for a series of large scale multiple chamber charge blasts conducted in the granite mountain area for making construction space on the southeast sea coast in China during 1993-1996. This paper describes the blast design and damage control of one mountain blast 320m in length and 280m in width in the vicinity of two wharfs and a dam. In order to obtain better rock fragmentation and muckpile, the explosive charge should be well-distributed in the mountain. The charge pattern, therefore, was designed with mainly 5 rows of tunnel charge in regular terrain in combination with a chamber charge in irregular topography area and the maximum burden was limited to be less than 38m. In order to protect the dam and wharfs the firing sequence was carefully arranged in 29 intervals and the distance between different charges of the same delay to the dam or wharf was taken into account as an additional delay interval based on the difference of p-wave propagating times. The maximum charge fired in an interval was also limited to less than 34t explosives through dividing the larger charge by a stemming deck.

Jan 1, 1998

By Russell D. Melton, Gary A. Kanelos

A construction company performed blasting operations to break up limestone bedrock for excavation of residential basements. The owners of an existing residence located approximately 400 feet from the operation claimed that vibration damaged the structure and created foundation subsidence by lowering the moisture content of the foundation soils.

Jan 1, 1996

By Unknown

Contact Local Law Enforcement Authorities. Contacting the local law enforcement authorities is essential to the quick recovery of explosives taken in a crime. Contact Local ATF Office. The local ATF office will work with the local law enforcement authorities investigating the theft. They can also assist in the preparation of the Theft/Loss Report for submission to the U.S. Bomb Data Center.

Jan 1, 2009

By W. De Graaf, C. Mkumbo

Bulyanhulu Gold Mine Limited (BGML) commissioned a project of sinking a Bulk Air Cooling Shaft during its programme to improve the ventilation system on the mine. As part of this project, a ventilation drift had to be developed and holed into the Main Shaft at 4920 Level. AEL Mining Services (AEL) were requested to provide a technical solution, which included monitoring of blast induced vibrations and to design drilling and timing plans to ensure blasting activities on the vent drift were conducted without disrupting the main shaft’s infrastructure.

Jan 1, 2011

By Nan H. Lee, Christopher J. Hunter, Stephen H. Chung

Several factors affect the productivity of mining operations. The geological structure of a mineral deposit and the fragment size of blasted material are considered to be most influential. It is well known that productivity varies with mucking cycles and that this is related to the explosive energy produced by a blast.

Jan 1, 1991

By K. Hausmann, W. Whelchel

The properties of ethylene Ionomer resins for the inner layer of non-electric shock tubes will be discussed in detail, and opportunities for property enhancement will be pointed out. A stiffness program for prediction of shock tube stiffness, as determined by the stiffness of the individual layers, will be presented and discussed.

Jan 1, 2010

By J R. Phin

The properties of all available modern blasting initiation techniques are reviewed. Primadets are nonelectric initiators, the nonelectric features of the system eliminates concern of premature initiation from static or stray currents. The loading techniques are simple and a minimum of training is required. There is no limitation in the number of necessary sequences in which the Primadet need be connected for initiation. This flexibility improves vibration control,and often reduces costs due to increased fragmentation.

Jan 1, 1975

By Paul Worsey, Terry Nixon

The development and testing of a simple mechanical stemming aid (Patents pending) resulting from a Joint venture by Incubator Technologies Inc. and the University of Missouri-Rolla and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy is described. The aid comprises a solid unit placed in the stemming above the explosive column and is designed to improve blasting efficiency and reduce drilling and blasting costs. It works with back filled drill cuttings or any other suitable stemming material.

Jan 1, 1988

By Rob Farnfield, Ben Williams

The A5 road in the United Kingdom forms an ancient and well-used route through the hills and mountains of North Wales. In the 1990?s a programme of work was conducted to upgrade the road to modern standards. As part of this work a new cutting was constructed to bypass a portion of road routed through a gorge close to the village of Ty Nant. This new cutting was formed by drilling and blasting and included much pre-splitting and extensive rock bolting. This operation caused much concern to local residents relating to vibration, air overpressure and flyrock.

Jan 1, 2011

By Eric Reale

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is currently building City Water Tunnel #3 beneath the city. The purpose of this tunnel is to improve water distribution to the city and to allow the DEP to inspect the older tunnels and make the necessary repairs. These older tunnels have been in continuous operation since the early 1900's. Construction on the Third Tunnel is planned in four stages. The Nelson Street Shaft, which is the focus of this paper, is part of the second stage.

Jan 1, 1989

By Ron Gilbert

Every day, demand increases with over all population; supply must follow. People must have more food, shelter, and mobility. Raw materials must be mined. Roads, trenches and foundations support the quality of life.

Jan 1, 1996

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 Adrian J. Moore, Alan B. Richards, Rob Evans

Air and ground vibration from blasting is influenced by the delay pattern that is used. Wavefronts from blastholes fired in a blasting pattern can combine in certain circumstances to give increased blast vibration levels. A simple computer model has been developed which shows the combined effect of wavefronts from a multi-hole blast and identifies if wavefront reinforcement occurs, and permits delay patterns to be designed which will avoid or reduce wavefront reinforcement.

Jan 1, 1994

By Clayton Thompson

Linear detonation wave generators (DWGs) shape a detonation wave so that every portion of the wavefront reaches the target “line” simultaneously. A projection-type linear DWG uses Gurney plate velocity predictions and Taylor deflection angle predictions to estimate the angle at which a thin projected flyer (typically metal) will impact a target. A mousetrap-style planar DWG consists of two projection-type linear DWGs working in succession to create a planar wave-front through shock initiation of each successive target explosive. The angle of deflection is critical to yielding a planar or linear wave profile. Gurney predictions, nominally accurate to within 10% of empirical results, may not yield ideal linear or planar detonation behavior when used with a grazing projection-type DWG, which typically requires accuracy within 2%. Simulations were conducted using AUTODYN hydro code to compare deflection angle prediction methods. Ranges of minimal error between Gurney and Taylor predictions and the results from the hydro code were determined, using PBX-9404-driven polyethylene flyers.

Jan 1, 2011