USP Centre for Responsible Mining

USP Centre for Responsible Mining

The study is focused on experimental campaigns carried out in two

Brazilian sites:
① an open pit quarry located in the State of São Paulo
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

The study is focused on experimental campaigns carried out in two

Brazilian sites:

② a civil tunnel under construction in Northern Brazil

 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

INTRODUCTION
Different drilling geometries and charging configurations were
applied to both quarrying and tunnelling blasts.

The Half-Cast Factor (HCF), the Over-break (OB) and the Under-
break (UB) were evaluated as control indicators.

Rock Quality Designation (RQD) and Rock Mass Rating (RMR) were
used to classify the rock mass.

The research was aimed to push contour blasts to their limits,

observing for which geometry and charge configuration a blast
looses its design threshold with respect to the final wall for every
given rock mass
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

INTRODUCTION
Contour blasting (Smooth Blasting): decoupled charges

To achieve the best results in terms of excavation profile, blasting theory

suggests that charges should be coaxial to the holes, to grant an uniform
distribution of the explosive energy and therefore obtaining an uniform Radius
of Damage.
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining
INTRODUCTION
Nevertheless, non-coaxial charges are often employed in blasting practice. They
include:
- high-grain detonating cord (40 to 100 g/m);
- low-grain detonating cord connecting small-diameter cartridges (commonly 10
g/m detonating cord priming 1" cartridges)
- string loading (a thin layer of bulk emulsion pumped with controlled flow and
controlled extraction of the injecting rod)
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

① Experimental open pit quarry

Aim: Evaluating the minimum charge/maximum spacing

ratio which guarantees a good control of the walls

Adoption of smooth blasting, with different configurations of non-coaxial

charges, and different drilling geometries:

 constant linear charge along the holes, by varying the spacing

amongst contour holes

 constant spacing amongst contour holes, by varying the linear

charge along the holes
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

① Experimental open pit quarry

Charging schemes adopted:
CHARGE 1 CHARGE 2 CHARGE 3

CHARGE 4: the same as CHARGE 1, but distances between the cartridges vary from
hole to hole (functional groups of four holes with the same linear charge were
blasted)
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

① Experimental open pit quarry

10 g/m detonating cord + Stemming with water

+ 1"x12" emulsion cartridges
Ø=2,5"
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

① Experimental open pit quarry

Charge 1: ready to use Charging Before blasting

 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

① Experimental open pit quarry

Experimental blasts
FEATURES BLAST 1 BLAST 2 BLAST 3
Bench height [m] 6.5 6.5 6.0
Drill-hole length [m] 7.0 7.0 6.5
Drill-hole diameter [mm]/ [inch] 63.5 / 2.5 63.5 / 2.5 63.5 / 2.5
Spacing [m] 0.75 0.75 0.8; 1.0; 1.1; 1.2; 1.3; 1.4
Detonating cord DC [g/m] 10 40 40
Ø Column charge [mm] / [inch] 25.4 / 1 / /
L Column charge [mm] / [inch] 304 / 12 / /
Gap between QC [mm] / [inch] 304 / 12 / /
Strands of DC/hole 1 2 1
Cartridges/hole [n] 11 / /
Holes/blast[-] 13 12 24 (4 for each scheme)
Charge/hole+DC [kg] 1.95 + 0.07= 2.02 0.56 0.26
Charge/blast [kg] 26.26 6.72 6.24
Linear charge [kg/m] 0.29 0.08 0.04
Delays [n] none none none
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

BLAST 1: half of the perimeter of the final wall was charged with CHARGE 1; the other
half with CHARGE 2. Spacing was kept constant
Results: HCF 100% in RQD = 100%. The two different charging methods led to comparable
results

0,75 m

CHARGE 1
CHARGE 2
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

BLAST 2: for every two adjacent holes, one was charged with CHARGE 1; the other
hole with CHARGE 2. Spacing was kept constant
Results: HCF 100% in RQD = 100% . Alternate charging methods led to smooth, uniform
breaking
CHARGE 1 CHARGE 1 CHARGE 1 CHARGE 1

CHARGE 2 CHARGE 2 CHARGE 2

1m

2m
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

BLAST 3: all the holes were charged with CHARGE 3. Spacing between the holes
was regularly increased in functional groups of 4 holes with constant spacing
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

① Experimental open pit quarry

Results: BLAST 3
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

① Experimental open pit quarry

Theoretical results on the basis of the calculation of the Radius of Damage,
assuming that it is equal to the radius of influence (Hustrulid, 1999)

Rd Pe Exp 2.65 ρe D2
= 25 Pd = Pe = 0,5 Pd
rh Pe ANFO ρrock 4
Ø Øexp D ρe ρr PeExp Rd/rh Rd
Decoupling
" mm mm km/s kg/dm3 kg/dm3 MPa - mm
Production Blast
ø𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑒 ø𝐸𝑥𝑝 = 1,25 2,5 63,5 57,15 4,5 1,15 2,6 2213 32 1915
Charge 2
ø𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑒 ø𝐸𝑥𝑝 = 7.5 2,5 63,5 8,5 6,8 0,9 2,6 28 0 215
Charge 1
ø𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑒 ø𝐸𝑥𝑝 = 2.5 2,5 63,5 25,4 4,5 1,15 2,6 269 32 667
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

① Experimental open pit quarry

These results contrast with the theoretical values of the Radius of

damage that each hole should develop: the formulations available
nowadays present ambiguous issues on which it would be worth to
further investigate.
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

① Experimental open pit quarry

CONCLUSIONS
Two main aspects deserve to be considered regarding the theoretical
formulae:
- the rock mass features are not taken into account
- they are based on a 2-D ideal visualization, which does not allow to
include the distribution of the charge along the hole in the third
dimension.
Future research will be aimed to include rock mass indicators in the
design methods and to integrate the linear charge along the axis of the
hole and its continuity.
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

② Civil tunnel under construction in Northern Brazil

Excavation of a tunnel for the transposition of the São Francisco River,

in Northern Brazil.
Tunnel length: 3.08 km
Rock: altered gneiss: RMR was estimated through 32 measurements
and a mean value of 47 was found (Class III), with only two exceptions
in Class IV.
Excavation close to the surface (average overburden about 30 - 40 m)
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

② Civil tunnel under construction in Northern Brazil

Both parallel holes and V-cuts were used

Scheme of parallel holes cut; Pull: 2.5 m; Surface: 30 m2; Total charge: 119 kg;
Detonating cord 40 g/m: 90 m; Powder factor: 1.32 kg/m3; Holes diameter: 45 mm.
Delay time: 25 ms. Numbers refer to the delay sequence.
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

② Civil tunnel under construction in Northern Brazil

Both parallel holes and V-cuts were used

Scheme of a V-cut. Pull: 3.0 m; Surface: 30 m2; Total charge: 119 kg; Detonating cord
40 g/m: 90 m; Powder factor: 1.32 kg/m3; Holes diameter: 45 mm. Delay time: 25 ms.
Numbers refer to the delay sequence.
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

② Civil tunnel under construction in Northern Brazil

Smooth blasting: øf = 45 mm, spacing S = 510 mm (S = 11 øf). The
contour holes were weakly loaded
Parallel hole cut; charge/hole 0.21 kg; Parallel hole cut; charge/hole 0.21 kg;
n contour holes: 28 n contour holes: 28

V – Cut; charge/hole 0.21 kg; n contour V – Cut; charge/hole 0.43 kg; n contour
holes: 28 holes: 28

Details of the charges employed in contour holes. Tunnel face is on the left of the
picture
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

② Civil tunnel under construction in Northern Brazil

Poor quality of the profile was noticeable(HCF lower than 30%),
although contour blast-holes were charged with 40 g/m detonating
cord and buffer blast-holes were employed to improve the result.
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

② Civil tunnel under construction in Northern Brazil

The blasts were very carefully carried out, respecting the drilling
design, loading and timing
Buffer holes were performed to increase the chance of success of the
smooth blasting, but in almost all cases HCF was not satisfactory

In this case, the explosive appears not to be the most suitable design
choice, due to the persistency of rock discontinuities which affect the
success of the Blasts ( Class IV RMR)
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

② Civil tunnel under construction in Northern Brazil

CONCLUSIONS
1. Where the rock is poorly competent and D&B should not
probably have been chosen as an excavation technique on
the first place, any quality of the final walls is hardly
achieved at all, in spite of any care in the details of
execution of smooth blasting
2. All results show that the rock mass features must be
included in any design criterion and theoretical approach
modeling the effects of contour blasting.
 USP Centre for Responsible Mining

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
Non-coaxial charge have shown operational limits in the rock
masses object of this study.
In good-quality rock, smooth blasting with decoupled linear charge
of 40 g/m can be extended to a spacing S = 22Øf with little or no
detectable drawbacks in terms of final wall quality, in contrast with
theoretical formulae for the determination of the radius of damage.
On the other hand, when the rock is poor, any quality of the final
wall is hardly achieved at all, in spite of any care in the details of
execution of smooth blasting.
It is concluded that any design criterion and theoretical approach
modeling the effects of contour blasting cannot ignore the features
of the rock mass.
USP Centre for Responsible Mining