• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.55-64
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• 2006

It is very Important to predict the damage zone of a rock mass induced by blasting for the excavation of an underground cavity such as a tunnel, as the damage zones incur mechanical and hydraulic instability of the rock mass potentially. Complicated blasting processes that can hinder the proper characterization of the damage zone can be effectively represented by two loading mechanisms. The first mechanism is the dynamic impulsive load-generating stress waves that radiate outwards immediately after detonation. This load creates a crushed annulus along with cracks around the blasthole. The second is the gas pressure that remains for an extended time after detonation. As the gas pressure reopens some arrested cracks and extends these, it contributes to the final structure of the damage zone induced by the blasting. This paper presents a simple method to evaluate the damage zone induced by gas pressure during rock blasting. The damage zone is characterized by analyzing crack propagations from the blasthole. To do this, a model of a blasthole with a number of radial cracks that are equal in length in a homogeneous infinite elastic plane is considered. In this model, crack propagation is simulated through the use of only two conditions: a crack propagation criterion and the mass conservation of the gas. The results show that the stress intensity factor of a crack decreases as the crack propagates from the blasthole, which determines the crack length. In addition, it was found that the blasthole pressure continues to decrease during crack propagation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.1409-1416
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• 2010

It is essential to predict a blasting-induced excavation damage zone (EDZ) beyond the proposed excavation line of a tunnel because the unwanted damage area requires extra support system for tunnel safety. Complicated blasting process which may hinder a proper characterization of the damage zone can be effectively represented by two loading mechanisms. The one is a dynamic impulsive load generating stress waves outwards immediately after detonation. The other is a gas pressure that remains for a relatively long time. Since the gas pressure reopens up the arrested cracks and continues to extend some cracks, it contributes to the final formation of EDZ induced by blasting. This paper presents the simple method to evaluate EDZ induced by gas pressure during blasting in rock. The EDZ is characterized by analyzing crack propagation from the blasthole. To do this, a model of the blasthole with a number of radial cracks of equal length in an infinite elastic plane is considered. In this model, the crack propagation is simulated by using three conditions, the crack propagation criterion, the mass conservation of the gas, and the adiabatic condition. As a result, the stress intensity factor of the crack generally decreases as crack propagates from the blasthole so that the length of the crack is determined. In addition, the effect of rock properties, initial number of cracks, and the adiabatic exponent are investigated.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2011

Air deck charge blasting method which has been generally used in a surface mine and large scale developing site is one of the improved techniques with blasting effectiveness. Many studies and experiments have been tried to investigate the characteristics of pressure distribution in a blasting hole and increase the effectiveness of air deck charge blasting method. In this study, changes of pressure occurred in sections of air deck installed in various ways was computed and also changes of pressure with the location and length of air deck was analyzed, using numerical analysis program. Basically, all the numerical analysis was 2-Dimensional analysis and equation of status of explosives was JWL-EOS. Only to evaluate the variations of pressure in blast hole, it was assumed that rock mass is homogeneous but rock mass has different density and intensity.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.5 s.64
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• pp.413-421
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• 2006

In order to explain entirely dynamic fracture process induced by blasting in rock mass, it needs to consider detonation pressure and gas pressure acting on blasthole wall simultaneously. In this study, prior to simulating the coupling between gas flow and rock mass, we analyzed effects of gas pressure-time history, length of cracks and equation of state adopted to calculate the gas pressure on the gas flow within a radial fracture created by single-hole blasting. The effects were investigated on two assumptions: (a) the radial fracture was composed of 5 cracks which were 0.01 m in length and 0.001 m in asperity each and (b) the PETN explosive which diameter was 36 mm was charged in a blasthole of 45 mm diameter. It was concluded that the maximum gas pressure and its travel time were dependent on characteristics of charged explosives and geometrical properties of radial fracture.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.320-327
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• 2011

In this study, for stemming effect in blast of the mortar block body, the crushed granite sand as fine aggregate, which is waste rock obtained at the ○○ limestone mine, was investigated to compare with stemming materials such as sea sand, river sand, clayed soil and water can be acquired easily at the field. The mortar block body was manufactured with the dimensions of 50 cm width, 50 cm length and 70 cm height. The direct shear and sieve separator test were performed, and the properties of friction resistance were analyzed by the extrusion test for five stemming materials. Axial strain of steel bar and ejection velocity of stemming materials due to the explosive shock pressure in blasthole with the stemming length of 10 cm and 20 cm in the mortar blast test were measured by the dynamic data acquisition system. Among stemming materials, axial strain showed the largest value at the crushed granite sand as fine aggregate, and the ejection velocity was the smallest value at the stemming of water. The results has shown correlate with harden unit weight in blasthole, particle size distribution, shear resistance, and extrusion strength of stemming materials. The ejection velocity of stemming material at the mouth of blasthole and the axial strain of steel bar in the inside of blasthole tend to be inversely proportional to each other, represent exponentially.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.9-14
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• 2017

Coupling effects of the stemming materials for single borehole were studied by AUTODYN analysis and compared to understand the role of different stemming materials on transmitting the pressure from blasthole to the surrounding rocks. Five different material properties, air, sand, water, 10% and 20% gelatin were selected. Authors assumed that high pressure detected in borehole means better fragmentation. Simulations show that these coupling materials lead to different level of pressure in the blasting hole and 20% gelatin turns out to be highest among them. Results show that gelatin can be used as better coupling material than sand or water.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.6 s.65
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• pp.476-485
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• 2006

During blasting, both shock wave and gas are generated in detonation process of explosives and the generated wave and gas expansion may create new fractures and damage rock mass. In order to explain and understand completely the fracture mechanism by blasting, we have to consider both effects of the wave and gas expansion simultaneously. In this study, we use a discrete element code, PFC2D and develop an algorithm which is capable of modeling both detonation and gas pressures acting on blasthole wall and visualizing generated cracks within rock mass. Moreover, the gas-pressure modeling method which applies a corresponding external force of gas pressure to parent particles of radial fractures is adopted to simulate a coopting between rock mass and gas penetrating created radial fractures. The developed algorithm is verified by reproducing numerical simulations of a lab-scale test blast successfully.