• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.272-284
• /
• 2022

This study conducted tunnel blasting to evaluate the blasting effect of a shear thickening fluid-based blasting stemming material and a sealed plug device under development. STF single stemming and STF stemming materials were combined with plugs to a tunnel blasting to which the SAV-Cut method was applied, and the advanced rate and fragmentation of tunnel blasting muck pile were compared when sand stemming was used. Tunnel advanced rate was evaluated using a 3D laser scanner. When the STF stemming material and STF stemming material with the plug were compared to the sand stemming material, it increased by 5.7 and 5.36%, respectively. As a result of evaluation of the fragmentation of tunnel blasting muck pile, it was the best when the STF stemming material was applied, and it decreased by about 61% compared to the case of sand stemming blasting. However, no significant improvement in blasting effect was observed with the application of plug devices.

• Explosives and Blasting
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2022

Numerical simulation is the most widely used methods for evaluating blasting performance. This study, conducted the numerical analysis of shock chamber model to evaluate the pressure confine effect of the stemming material and plug device. The stemming effect was compared and evaluated with that of the STF-based stemming material currently under development and sand, which is a commonly used blast stemming material. Furthermore, to verify of enhancement the confine effect inside blast hole pressure, three types of stemming plugs were adopted for the numerical analysis. The numerical simulation results revealed that the STF-based stemming materials were superior to the general stemming material. Also, It is evaluated that the STF-based stemming and Plug system can not only prevent detonation gas from overflowing the borehole prematurely, but also prolong the action time and scope of detonation gas in the borehole effective.

• Explosives and Blasting
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2023

Stemming is a process applied to blast holes to prevent gases from escaping during detonation. A stemming material helps confine the explosive energy for longer and increases rock fragmentation. This study developed a stemming material based on a shear-thickening fluid (STF) that reacts to dynamic shock. Two blasting experiments were conducted to Field-verify the performance of the STF-based stemming material. In the first experiment, the pressure inside the blast hole was directly measured based on applying the stemming material. In the second field verification, tunnel blasting was performed, and the blasting results of sand stemming and, that of the STF-based stemming case were compared. The measurement results of the pressure in the blast hole showed that when the STF-based stemming material was applied, the pressure at the top of the blast hole was lower than in the sand stemming case, and the stemming ejection was also lower. The results of the field application verify that the excavation performance of the STF-based stemming case in the tunnel blasting was superior to that of the sand stemming case.

• Explosives and Blasting
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.9-14
• /
• 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
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.320-327
• /
• 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
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.15-23
• /
• 2021

Ventilation shafts are pathways in mines and tunnels for the removal of dust or smoke during underground space construction and operation. In mines, blasting with long blast holes is preferred for the excavation of a ventilation shaft in the 10~20m long crown pillar section. In this case, the bottom part of the blast hole is completely drilled in order to determine the drilling error, and this causes a problem of lowering the explosive charge and blasting efficiency. It is possible to solve the problem of explosive loading and to increase the blast efficiency by covering the curb of the blasthole by using stemming material. In this study, simulations for the blasting of a ventilation shaft were performed with various stemming lengths and the blasthole diameters(45, 76mm) using AUTODYN 2D SPH(Smooth particle hydrodynamics) analysis technique. Also the optimal bottom stemming column was derived by checking the size of the boulder and burden line according to blasting. Analysis result, blasting efficiency is lessened in case of stemming length less than 30cm and the optimal length of the stemming material should be 30cm or higher to achieve high efficiency of blasting.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.37 no.10
• /
• pp.13-25
• /
• 2021

The most widely used method for determining the blast effects of explosives is the Trauzl test. This test is used to measure the explosive power (strength) of a substance by determining volume increase, which is produced by the detonation of a tested explosive charge in the cavity of a lead block with defined quality and size. In this paper, Trauzl lead block test and High speed 3D-DIC (Digital Image Correlation) system were conducted to evaluate the stemming effect of the blast hole. The effects of stemming materials can be expressed as the expansion of the cavity in a standard lead block through explosion of the explosives. The blasting experiment was conducted with emulsion explosives. The stemming material in the blast hole of lead block, which was adopted in this study, were using sand and stone chips. Results of blasting experiment and numerical analysis showed that the expansion rates of lead block were most affected by stone chips followed by sand. Also, as result of dynamic strain measurement on the lead block surface of High speed 3D-DIC system, the displacement and surface strain on the block were the highest in the experiment case of stone chips stemming.

• Explosives and Blasting
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.35-47
• /
• 2018

In this study, several concrete-block blast tests and AUTODYN numerical analyses were conducted to analyze the effects of different stemming and coupling materials on explosion results. Air, sand, and polymer gel were used as both the stemming and coupling materials. The stemming and coupling effects of these materials were compared with those of the full-charge condition. Soil-covered or buried concrete blocks were used for field crater tests. It was found from the concrete block tests and numerical analyses that both the crater size and the peak pressure around the blast hole were higher when the polymer gel was used than when the sand and the decoupling condition were used. The numerical analyses revealed the same trend as those of the field tests. Pressure peaks in concrete block models were calculated to be 37, 30, and 16 MPa, respectively, for the cases of the polymer gel, sand, and no stemming and decoupling condition. The pressure peak was 52 MPa in the case of full-charge condition, which was the highest pressure. But the damage area for the case was smaller than that obtained from the use of polymer gel. Full-charge was also used as a reference test.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.53 no.1
• /
• pp.159-172
• /
• 2015

This paper is concerned with effects of the wall flexibility on the seismic behavior of ground-supported cylindrical silos. It is a well-known fact that almost all analytical approximations in the literature to determine the dynamic pressure stemming from the bulk material assume silo structure as rigid. However, it is expected that the horizontal dynamic material pressures can be modified due to varying horizontal extensional stiffness of the bulk material which depends on the wall stiffness. In this study, finite element analyses were performed for six different slenderness ratios according to both rigid and flexible wall approximations. A three dimensional numerical model, taking into account bulk material-silo wall interaction, constituted by ANSYS commercial program was used. The findings obtained from the numerical analyses were discussed comparatively for rigid and flexible wall approximations in terms of the dynamic material pressure, equivalent base shear and bending moment. The numerical results clearly show that the wall flexibility may significantly affects the characteristics behavior of the reinforced concrete (RC) cylindrical silos and magnitudes of the responses under strong ground motions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.317-334
• /
• 2014

The work is concerned with an investigation of the advantages stemming from the use of lightweight aggregate concrete in earthquake-resistant reinforced concrete construction. As the aseismic clauses of current codes make no reference to lightweight aggregate concrete beams made of lightweight aggregate concrete but designed in accordance with the code specifications for normal weight aggregate concrete, together with beams made from the latter material, are tested under load mimicking seismic action. The results obtained show that beam behaviour is essentially independent of the design method adopted, with the use of lightweight aggregate concrete being found to slightly improve the post-peak structural behaviour. When considering the significant reduction in deadweight resulting from the use of lightweight aggregate concrete, the results demonstrate that the use of this material will lead to significant savings without compromising the structural performance requirements of current codes.